Dorien Theuns made a documentary about Depok, Java, in 2013. During those months in Indonesia, she met many Indonesian people who spoke Dutch and shared stories with her. She realized that these were the last generation in Indonesia who experienced the former Dutch East Indies from this bi-cultural perspective and wanted to capture their stories for a wider audience. Martin Everaert of Utrecht University – linguist, born in Surabaya wanted to research the Dutch language in Indonesia. They decided to start an interview project together, the result of which can be seen in the website www.indo-in-indonesie.com.
The website features 60 excerpts with a length between 1 – 5 minutes. The interviews went through the life of the interviewee chronologically. The main questions were: What is your (family) background? How were you raised and educated? What influence did Dutch colonial rule, World War II/Japanese occupation, Indonesian freedom struggle and independence have on your life? What made you stay in Indonesia? How did your life change after independence; how do you look back on your life?
Everaert, M., Pinget, A-F., & Theuns, D. (2022).
Speaking Dutch in Indonesia: Language and Identity.
In The Riches of Intercultural Communication (3 ed., Vol. 37, pp. 3).
(Utrecht Studies in Language and Communication; Vol. 37).