PALA – Nutmeg Tales of Banda

Westfries Museum, 2021

Enriching and innovative online exhibition about Banda

How do you illuminate history, which story do you tell? After all, a historical event has several sides and can also be highlighted from different perspectives. Take, for example, the history of the Banda Islands which is closely linked to nutmeg cultivation. This spring it will be exactly 400 years ago that a mass murder took place on these Banda islands under the responsibility of the VOC, carried out by Jan Pietersz Coen.

The Westfries Museum reflects on this event with a groundbreaking online exhibition, “PALA – Nutmeg tales”. Pala is the Indonesian word for nutmeg. The title already indicates that the story is not told from a purely Dutch perspective. The museum works together with experts from Banda and from the Moluccan community in the Netherlands to achieve a polyphonic presentation.

PALA is not only about the mass murder in 1621. Emphatically not, but provides insight into the geography, nature, culture and history of the Banda Islands through film, interviews, podcasts, vlogs, longreads and many other productions: from photography to graphic novel. A rich palette of stories, points of view and experiences. On view here from 8 May:
https://pala.wfm.nl/
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