Remembrance under Fire

On war, colonialism and identity, with Sinan Çankaya, Lara Nuberg and Maurits de Bruijn. Moderator: Nancy Jouwe.

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Information

Date and time Saturday 25 January 2025 21:10 tot 22:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
Price All up to 30 years 15,-
Regular 35,-
Ooievaarspas 15,-
DenHaagPas 32,50.

At a time when war is raging in Europe, in the Middle East and on the African continent, the question arises: what is the role of remembrance today? For many Dutch people, the Second World War is central to the national culture of remembrance. But what does this emphasis on one war mean for our image of the Netherlands?

Herdenken onder vuur (Remembering under Fire) explored how the emphasis on the Second World War in Dutch remembrance affects our national self-image and what role it plays in the recognition of other forms of violence, such as those in the former colonies and forms of oppression today.

The National Commemoration on 15 August 1945, the day commemorating the end of the Japanese occupation in Indonesia, is used as a case study. How does this commemoration relate to the broader historiography of the Netherlands and which voices are given space here or not?

With literary contributions by Sinan Çankaya, Maurits de Bruijn and Lara Nuberg, Herdenken onder vuur offered a reflection on the thesis of how commemoration is not only about the past, but also about the choices we make today. In conversation led by Nancy Jouwe, we explored how war, colonialism and identity continue to shape our national self-image and collective memory. Dutch spoken.

Remembrance under Fire was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Lara Nuberg.

Line-up

Lara Nuberg

(1990) writes, narrates and produces audio-stories about (colonial) history, identity and the culture of remembrance. She has been published in Dutch daily newspapers and the Indonesian monthly Moesson. Together with the Indonesian writer and visual artist Lala Bohang, she created The Journey of Belonging (2020), a quest for the influence of history on their lives and those of the women in their Indonesian families. In 2021, she appeared as one of the experts in the TV program Het Museum van Nederland (The Museum of the Netherlands). She is also head instructor and coordinator of the educational project Colonial Traces in My Neighbourhood, and is  currently working on her debut novel, Gado Gado, inspired by her own search for identity and belonging (expected in 2025). Early 2025 she will publish, together with Feba Sukmana, a reissue of the letters by Kartini.
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Sinan Çankaya

(The Netherlands, 1982) is a cultural anthropologist and writer. He obtained his PhD with a study on diversity within the police organisation (Buiten veiliger dan binnen, 2011). He then conducted research on ethnic profiling (De controle van marsmannetjes en ander schorriemorrie, 2012). Cankaya currently works as an associate professor at VU University Amsterdam, in the Department of Public Administration and Political Science. He has written for De Correspondent, De Groene Amsterdammer, De Volkskrant and Hard Gras. His non-fiction book Mijn ontelbare identiteiten (2020) was awarded several times, including with the E. du Perron Prize. It is a reflection on the changing relationship with ‘the Other’ in the Netherlands, and a penetrating story about growing up in the Netherlands as a child of migrants. He also wrote the story November (2022) for Das Mag's monthly series De Maanden.

Go the website of Sinan Çankaya here.
Instagram: @cankaya_als_tsj_van_tsjurtjill
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Maurits de Bruijn

(The Netherlands, 1984) wrote the novels Broer (Brother) and De achterkant van de zon (The Back of the Sun). In 2020, he published his non-fiction debut Ook mijn Holocaust (Also My Holocaust) and in 2022, he compiled the collection Op de sofa with vulnerable and moving stories by thirteen writers about their experiences with therapy. He is also editor of art magazine Mister Motley. His novel Man maakt stuk (Man Smashes, 2024) is a daring story about taking up space, masculinity and queerness in society and in art: artist David has to live with a group of men who gather under his window night after night. The group deprives him of his peace, but he also takes something back - with disastrous consequences.
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Nancy Jouwe

(The Netherlands, 1967)  is a cultural historian and works as a freelance researcher, writer and curator with a focus on intersectionality, the (post)colonial past, slavery and related contemporary social and cultural practices. She is working on a PhD at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam and is a fellow at the Utrecht School of the Arts from 2022-2025. As author and co-editor, she has released several publications on the ZMV women's movement in the Netherlands, gender and colonialism, and the Dutch slavery past; the most recent collections are Gendered Empire (Verloren, 2020), Slavernij en de stad Utrecht (Walburg Pers, 2021), Slavernij Herbezien (LM Publishers, 2021), Caleidoscopische Visies (Mazirel, 2024) and Gids Slavernijverleden van de Kaap (LM Publishers, 2025).
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