Women’s group Kelompok

Few people know that in the 1970s and 1980s, a women’s emancipation movement emerged in the Netherlands, consisting of women from various backgrounds who came together under the name ‘Black, Migrant, and Refugee Women’. The women’s group Kelompok, which included Moluccan women, played a significant role in the emerging Black women’s movement and established their own emancipation programmes, among other initiatives.

A few years ago, Kelompok’s archive was brought to Atria, with the intention of linking it to an ‘Oral History project’. Now, the Kelompok group’s archive has been organised and inventoried by the women who were involved from the very beginning.

In October 2024, the Kelompok group and Atria will launch the digital archive during a gathering for their own community, to celebrate this achievement, to gather more archival information, and to initiate an oral history project. This project will document Kelompok’s stories not only on paper but also through filmed interviews.