Old Ties, New Connections: A trip via the Indonesian past to the present

With Robin Block, Ellen Deckwitz, Adriaan van Dis, Lara Nuberg and Maddy Stolk

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Information

Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 22:15 tot 23:15 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
Price Early bird price until 26 December €25
Regular €30
All up to 30 years / Ooievaarspas €15
DenHaagPas €27,50

The ties between The Netherlands and Indonesia is a complicated history, and has strongly influenced generations of people with roots in the Dutch Indies. How do writers from generations born in The Netherlands view the land of their (grand)parents? The country they only know from lore, and with which they have built a new relationship of their own? Old Ties, New Connections is about having roots in another country and another time, about displacement and fresh ties to Indonesia.

Adriaan van Dis' work leads back in part to his Dutch Indies background. His 2023 novel Naar zachtheid en een warm omhelzen (To Tenderness and a Warm Hug), deals with his youth with his grandfather and Ommie, the woman who cared for and brought him up when Van Dis could not go home because his father struggled with the trauma of having been in a internment camp.

Maddy Stolk wrote in her autofiction novel Soedah, laat maar (Soedah, Never Mind, 2023) about her mothers past in an internment camp and how it affected her whole youth while she empties the house after her mother's death. In this way, she confronts the ghosts of her youth one more time.

Authors Ellen Deckwitz, Lara Nuberg and Robin Block belong to the third generation of Indonesians in The Netherlands. How do they look at the preceding generations? What is their view of the country where their ancestors were born?

With a presentation by Adriaan van Dis, Ellen Deckwitz, Lara Nuberg and Robin Block.

Line-up

Adriaan van Dis

(The Netherlands, 1946) grew up in a family with a past in the Dutch East Indies. He draws on these experiences in several of his works such as My Father's War (1995), Repatriated (2002) and in Naar zachtheid en een warm omhelzen (2023). Van Dis became well known via his literary television programme Here is... Adriaan van Dis (1983-1992). In addition to novels he has written novellas, travelogues, essays and plays. He presented TV documentary series and his podcast Van Dis Ongefilterd. He has received the Constantijn Huygens Award for his entire body of work. Recent publications are the collection Vijf vrolijke verhalen (2021), the novel KliFi, woede in de republiek Nederland (2022) and the essay De kolonie mept terug: over witte arrogantie en voortschrijdend inzicht: een denkoefening en leesreis (2024). During the Writers Unlimited Festival 2026, Van Dis will be the main interview guest on Saturday afternoon, 24 January, following the publication of his new book Alles voor de reis (Everything for the Journey), and on Sunday morning, 25 January, he and interviewer Simon Dikker Hupkes will record a new episode of his podcast series Van Dis Ongefilterd (Van Dis Unfiltered) live with an audience.

Go to website of Adriaan van Dis
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Ellen Deckwitz

(The Netherlands, 1982) is a poet, columnist, critic and presenter at literary events, including Writers Unlimited. For De steen vreest mij (2011), she was awarded the C. Buddingh’ Prize for the best poetry debut. Her collection Hogere natuurkunde (2019) is part travelogue, part myth and part testimony, and the outcome of conversations Deckwitz engaged in with individuals whose roots also trace back to the former Dutch East Indies. In 2022, Eerste hulp bij poëzie was published, an omnibus containing her collections Olijven moet je leren lezen (2020) and Dit gaat niet over grasmaaien (2021). Deckwitz writes columns for national daily newspaper NRC. In her NPO Luister podcast Poëzie vandaag, she presents a Dutch or translated poem every workday morning. She is one of three critics of podcast Boeken FM. Since Autumn 2025, she has been one of the presenters of Nooit meer Slapen, the VPRO's night-time cultural radio programme.

Instagram: @la_deck
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Robin Block

(The Netherlands, 1980) is a poet and musician. His performances combine language, music and the bodily. Following his roots and family history, much of his work is related to the colonial past of the Netherlands and Indonesia, as well as the topics of belonging and displacement. His last poetry collection Handbook for the Displaced was awarded the Herman de Coninck prize and the J.C. Bloem poetry prize, and was translated into English and Indonesian. Several of his poems were screened in Manual for the Displaced, a poetry film project together with cinematographer Jeremy Flohr. Block also writes columns, teaches poetry and works as an editor for Dutch poetry magazine Awater.

Go to the website of Robin Block
Instagram: @robinblock
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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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Maddy Stolk

(The Netherlands, 1970) is a writer, columnist and second-generation child of Indonesian descent. She worked as editor-in-chief for the Dutch magazines Elle, Elsevier and Harper's Bazaar. In addition, she is active as a columnist. The family novel Soedah, laat maar (Soedah, Never Mind, 2023) is Stolk's literary debut, in which she uses her own life as the basis for a haunting novel that is simultaneously moving, hard, painful and gentle. It is a story about a life with Indonesian parents and about the never-ending grief that parents pass on to their children. Her new novel, Waar wij altijd geweest zijn (Where We Have Always Been), will be published by Ambo Anthos in January 2026. This precursor to Soedah tells of three generations: grandmother, mother and daughter, each fighting for their autonomy and for their freedom in their own way.

Go to the website of Maddy Stolk
Instagram: @maddystolk
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