{"id":1172,"date":"2023-09-20T15:21:30","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T15:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/?p=1172"},"modified":"2025-11-06T13:07:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T13:07:44","slug":"heritage-and-visuals-how-to-use-visuals-to-preserve-and-document-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/index.php\/2023\/09\/20\/heritage-and-visuals-how-to-use-visuals-to-preserve-and-document-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"On Statues: Renegotiating Colonial Legacies"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p><strong>Renegotiating Colonial Legacies: The Controversy around Jan Pieterszoon Coen\u2019s Statue in Hoorn, the Netherlands\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Written by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/ava-abtahi-23027a27a\/\">Ava Abtahi\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Preface\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Last year, in my \u201cCultural Anthropology &amp; Development Sociology\u201d Bachelor\u2019s, I took some courses in the minor \u201cCultural Memory of War and Conflict\u201d. It combined memory studies and heritage studies, which has made me especially interested in <em>colonial <\/em>heritage, a topic I\u2019ll explore in this article. Following the 2015 Rhodes Must Fall movement, where Cecil Rhodes\u2019 statue was eventually removed from its pedestal at the University of Cape Town, and following George Floyd\u2019s murder in 2020, more and more decolonial activists have been problematizing colonial legacies and heritage, particularly in the West. This has led to the toppling of several colonial figures like Edward Colston in Bristol (2020) and John A. Macdonald in Canada (2020). Since I live in the Netherlands, I want to introduce an ongoing Dutch case: Jan Pieterszoon Coen\u2019s. It has created an intense and polarizing debate between those who oppose his monumentalization and those who support it. But before I analyze this case, who is Coen exactly?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Some Context\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Born in 1587, Jan Pieterszoon Coen (see Figure 1) became the fourth Governor-General of the VOC (Dutch East Indies) in 1617. As the Netherlands competed against larger empires like Spain and Portugal, Coen helped secure a monopoly over the nutmeg spice found in the Indonesian Banda Islands, granting the economic basis for the so-called Dutch \u201cGolden Age\u201d. But to do this, Coen ordered the killing of the Bandanese inhabitants. Around 14,000 out of 15,000 were murdered and the few survivors were enslaved. Coen repopulated the Banda Islands with forced laborers for spice plantations. Contemporaries nicknamed him the \u201cButcher of Banda\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"674\" class=\"wp-image-2860\" style=\"width: 840px; height: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Jan-Pieterszoon-Coen.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Jan-Pieterszoon-Coen.jpg 500w, https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Jan-Pieterszoon-Coen-223x300.jpg 223w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Despite the massacre he ordered, following his death in 1629, Coen has been monumentalized and in several different ways. The most notorious example is his statue in the Northern Dutch city of Hoorn (see Figure 2), which was inaugurated in 1893, more than 200 years after he died, in the city\u2019s main square, the Roode Steen. This contributed to the national effort at the time to honor major Dutch figures and strengthen national identity (Grever 2025).\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"636\" height=\"1024\" class=\"wp-image-2863\" style=\"width: 823px; height: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2.jpg 636w, https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2-186x300.jpg 186w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The statue has been a polarizing and \u201chot topic\u201d since Day One. Already when the monument was just a proposal, many individuals figured it was problematic to glorify someone like the \u201cButcher of Banda\u201d (van Engelenhoven: 83). The debate in the 21st\u00a0century centers on the tension between the role of anti-Coen activists and the \u201cmediators\u201d of the debate, Hoorn\u2019s municipality and the Westfries Museum, an institution dedicated to Hoorn\u2019s local history. I\u2019ll keep an anthropological and sociological spirit to all this, for example, by proposing strategies to widen the public discussion. I\u2019ll also suggest a solution to the issue that stresses the importance of involving local communities.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Coen\u2019s Trail (2011-2012)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>In the 21st century, the politics of immigration intensified and a new wave of nationalism that \u201cre-invented today\u2019s Dutch national identity\u201d (Grever and Leg\u00eane 2023: 37-38; Macdonald 2013: 169-170) began rising. Increasingly more people bought into the narrative that the Netherlands is going through an \u201cidentity crisis\u201d where things like its historical achievements, as well as ways to remember them (think of tangible heritage), are being threatened, especially by foreign presences (think of immigrants) (Ke\u0161i\u0107 et al. 2022: 1345). As all this unfolded, rebellious acts towards Coen\u2019s statue rose. A notable case was in 2011 when a petition collected 297 signatures from the 70,000-plus inhabitants of Hoorn in favor of relocating the statue to the Westfries Museum (van Engelenhoven 2022: 84). Ironically, a crane from a nearby construction site accidentally knocked the statue off shortly after. This put extra pressure on Hoorn\u2019s municipal council. In the end, it decided to restore the statue, though it did replace the monument\u2019s old plaque with one that is more critical of Coen. Shortly after, to facilitate the debate surrounding the monument, the Westfries Museum organized an exhibition that replicated a trial. Two historians acted as \u201cexpert witnesses\u201d discussing Coen\u2019s legacy in front of a \u201cjudge\u201d. They concluded that the statue should remain on its plinth. Although this might seem like an impartial exhibition with a democratic outcome, there are many flaws.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>First of all, the museum approached the debate surrounding the statue opportunistically by starring Maarten van Rossem as the \u201cjudge\u201d, a \u201ccelebrity-historian\u201d known in the academic sphere but outside too, commodifying the debate. Using van Rossem attracted a vast public. To add to this, the topic at hand was turned into a gossip-like one as the museum published a glossy magazine titled <em>De Coen! Geroemd en verguisd <\/em>(<em>The Coen! Famed and reviled<\/em>) to promote the exhibition. This generates a light-hearted tone around the debate, which in turn creates an emotional distancing from Coen\u2019s wrongdoings and a lack of engagement with both its consequences and the arguments of Coen\u2019s detractors. Another flaw is how the exposition\u2019s experts were all three white Dutch men with no Indonesian background, depriving the event of any diversity. The trial\u2019s verdict ended up being that Coen\u2019s actions must be set in their historical context and could not be judged according to contemporary moral standards (van Engelenhoven 2022: 93). Because of this, no point was seen in removing the statue. Following this conclusion, most of the public also voted to keep the statue.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>But the Westfries Museum is not the only one treating the subject lightheartedly. Hoorn\u2019s municipality used the same formula to justify its decision to restore Coen\u2019s statue after the crane incident. For example, some councilors have used endearing terms towards Coen, like \u201cour rascal\u201d (Johnson 2013: 7), while also saying that, despite his brutal actions, the benefits he brought to the Netherlands essentially outweigh them. And just like the Westfries, the municipality also argues that it\u2019s unfair to judge Coen\u2019s actions harshly through today\u2019s lenses.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"1024\" class=\"wp-image-2866\" src=\"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Statues-Updated-Plaque-720x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Statues-Updated-Plaque-720x1024.jpg 720w, https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Statues-Updated-Plaque-211x300.jpg 211w, https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Statues-Updated-Plaque-768x1092.jpg 768w, https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Statues-Updated-Plaque.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The \u201cshrugging off\u201d of Coen\u2019s wrongdoings is also seen with the municipality\u2019s updated plaque on the statue\u2019s pedestal (see Figure 3). Though it adopts a somewhat critical stance towards Coen, it\u2019s also filled with euphemisms. It refers to the Banda massacre as a \u201cpunitive expedition\u201d, essentially justifying the killing by arguing that it happened because the Bandanese violated a VOC trading ban (van Engelenhoven 2022: 82), not mentioning that such a ban had been forced on the local population. Also, anti-Coen folks are mentioned in a short sentence, making them seem like an \u201codd\u201d and \u201ctriggered\u201d minority in Hoorn, putting into question their stance. The sentence also suggests that criticism has only been a recent phenomenon when, in reality, it can be traced back to the statue\u2019s inauguration. Although activists have pointed out the biased plaque content, the inscription remains on the pedestal to this day. Something else to mention is that a QR code is displayed on the plaque, which leads to the \u201cvoicemail\u201d of Coen, played by an actor. Here, users can express their opinions on his deeds and Hoorn\u2019s monument. Although it\u2019s arguably an engaging initiative by the museum, \u201cit is doubtful whether a one-way possibility of expressing one\u2019s opinion to a fake voicemail account with a prerecorded message from a voice actor is really all that interactive\u201d (van Engelenhoven 2022: 103). You could also argue that without an explicit purpose, collecting opinions through Coen\u2019s voicemail risks being a gimmick in line with the commodification of the issue blamed on the trial and exhibition. Not only that, but sending a voicemail to \u201cpersonally connect\u201d with the Governor-General makes it less likely for the public to take a moral stance towards the matter, similarly to the trial-exhibition\u2019s case. In the end, then, the museum might not be as objective and impartial as we were meant to think it was. Van Engelenhoven refers to \u201crepressive tolerance\u201d here, a term developed by philosopher Herbert Marcuse, which refers to a tolerance that accepts the status quo and the attitude, opinions and practices of the majority even though they cause harm to minorities. Rather than challenging social oppression, such \u201ctolerance\u201d perpetuates it (Marcuse in van Engelenhoven 2022: 88). Unfortunately, the museum\u2019s position in this Coen debate hasn\u2019t changed much since the 2010s.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Coen\u2019s Monument in the Debate about the Dutch Colonial Legacy (2020-2025)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>George Floyd\u2019s murder in 2020 triggered a new wave of decolonial protests across some Western countries, where colonial tangible heritage has been targeted, notably\u00a0through graffiti that says things like \u201cgenocide\u201d, as seen on Coen\u2019s plinth (see Figure 2). Quite a few criticize these acts, considering them vandalistic, further creating polarization between critics and supporters of Coen\u2019s monument and encouraging an \u201cus\u201d versus \u201cthem\u201d mentality (Blok and Drie\u00ebnhuizen 2020). At the same time, though, the increase in protests against colonial heritage, including against Coen\u2019s statue in the Summer of 2020 (see Figure 4), has been beneficial for bringing back to life discussions on the monumentalization of Coen, including at a national level. Take the example in 2020, when Westfries Museum director Ad Geerdink (see Figure 5) stated on the institution\u2019s website that the Westfries still aims to take \u201ca neutral position in this discussion\u201d, taking over \u201cthe role of helping anyone who wants to determine a position in the debate by providing information\u201d (Kuiper 2021: 8). In an interview, he repeated that the best solution would be to add a new context to the statue to free it from any celebratory meaning (ibid.). But Mr. Geerdink doesn\u2019t elaborate any further. He just added that this whole Coen controversy is part of a bigger talk on how the Netherlands deals with its colonial past. In this regard, the website of <em>Historic England<\/em>, a public body devoted to promoting projects in the field of cultural heritage, notes how the museum recognized \u201cthat its work to date on the Netherlands\u2019 colonial past has overlooked the people who suffered its impact [&#8230;] and is working to address this gap\u201d (Historic England s.a.). Having this in mind, the next sentence might surprise you, since <em>Historic England <\/em>writes that the museum \u201cis exploring ways of giving those people a voice while retaining a sense of neutrality\u201d (ibid.). But isn\u2019t it the absence of Indonesian voices that is weakening the museum\u2019s \u201csense of neutrality\u201d?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"980\" height=\"581\" class=\"wp-image-2867\" src=\"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Riot-Police-at-2020-Protest-in-Hoorn.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Riot-Police-at-2020-Protest-in-Hoorn.jpg 980w, https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Riot-Police-at-2020-Protest-in-Hoorn-300x178.jpg 300w, https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Riot-Police-at-2020-Protest-in-Hoorn-768x455.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 980px) 100vw, 980px\" \/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"651\" class=\"wp-image-2869\" src=\"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ad-Geerdink-1024x651.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ad-Geerdink-1024x651.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ad-Geerdink-300x191.jpg 300w, https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ad-Geerdink-768x488.jpg 768w, https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ad-Geerdink.jpg 1119w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>In 2021, the Westfries tried to make up for this lack of inclusivity by organizing a virtual exposition called <em>Pala &#8211; Nutmeg tales of Banda <\/em>on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the Banda massacre. Since it took place during COVID-19, the exhibition was online in collaboration with 54 activists and scholars from different disciplines and various cultural backgrounds, including from Indonesia and the Moluccas, i.e., the province that the Banda Islands are part of. The narration was multimedial and multifaceted, with Mr. Geerdink publishing an article on the exposition\u2019s site where he describes the massacre as a genocide without downplaying Coen\u2019s responsibility by setting it in the historical context. However, when writing about Coen\u2019s statue, he states that today it \u201cfunctions mainly as an accusation against the \u2018Butcher of Banda\u2019. Thus, the monument has inadvertently become one of the bearers of the memory of the genocide on Banda\u201d (Geerdink s.a.). He also mentions the opinion of Iswanto Hartono (see Figure 6), an Indonesian artist, who believes that having monuments linked to the colonial past lying around the Netherlands shouldn\u2019t really matter anymore. By putting in evidence this bold take, Geerdink seems to suggest that we live in a post-colonial world where the Governor-General\u2019s statue has essentially lost its \u201ctitle\u201d as a controversial monument. Unfortunately, the heated, ever-more polarized debate surrounding it points\u00a0to a different reality. Once again, such a stance downplays the arguments of those supporting the statue\u2019s removal, essentially siding with the status quo.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"414\" class=\"wp-image-2870\" style=\"width: 840px; height: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Iswanto-Hartono-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Iswanto-Hartono-1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Iswanto-Hartono-1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>There\u2019s also some educational material on Coen belonging to the museum that can be questioned. For example, in a lesson plan aimed at secondary classes, updated in 2024, the VOC is euphemistically presented as a \u201cbusiness company\u201d and the Banda massacre is barely mentioned. To add to this, it\u2019s stated that the monument \u201chas been there for over 100 years. The statue of Jan Pieterszoon Coen is almost an integral part of the Roode Steen in Hoorn. Yet some would rather see him go, portraying those who support his statue\u2019s removal as a bitter and angry minority, arguably. The museum also has a series of podcasts aimed at providing Hoorn visitors with information about its main monuments. Here, Coen\u2019s wrongdoings are discussed more straightforwardly, but the tone is still light-hearted. What\u2019s even odder is the fact that the tone becomes almost humorous when one of the podcast speakers mentions \u201cDon\u2019t mess with Coen!\u201d after going over the Banda massacre. Here, we can once again see the commodification of the topic that was present in the 2011 trial-exhibition.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Today, the statue\u2019s removal is still an option since the municipality failed to decide on the removal in 2022, as had been originally established (DutchNews 2024). And the Westfries Museum, which has tried to use an innovative approach in its initiatives concerning Coen\u2019s monumentalization and some degree of openness in considering critical feedback, has ultimately shown a lack of transparency and even intellectual honesty about its position. So, where can we go from here?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Conclusion &#8211; a Bottom-up Approach\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Volchevska-Verbrugge (2024: 29) notes that heritage is often managed through \u201ctop-down\u201d approaches where authorities, rather than local communities, take the lead. This is basically the case with Coen\u2019s monument in Hoorn, even though the voting procedure was set up in 2012 on the occasion of Coen\u2019s \u201ctrial\u201d. In fact, the public who voted after the trial\u2019s verdict was being influenced, more than informed, by the experts. Such an approach towards heritage, which may turn out to be elitist, \u201ccan neglect the actual impact on the ground\u201d since it leaves little local community input (Zhang 2022: 46). However, in recent years, there has been a rise in critical heritage studies, which advocates for a \u201cbottom-up\u201d approach, where local communities are those who take charge of matters, as well as NGOs and activists, rather than authorities. This includes Poulios\u2019 discussion on preservation that concerns \u201cheritage as a process\u201d (Poulios 2010: 181), i.e., heritage should be seen as an ongoing, dynamic process rather than a static set of values or physical assets to be preserved. Such a grassroots approach encourages heritage communities to seek more inclusive and sustainable management pathways, something UNESCO deemed important to start advocating for in management plans \u201cif the heritage resources are to be sustained into the future\u201d (Logan 2015: 257). This movement that emphasizes the role of communities in shaping\u00a0\u00a0heritage\u00a0over time is promising for the Coen debate, but because of the polarization surrounding this discussion, communication strategies must be carefully weighed. Actions of \u201caffective activism\u201d aiming to provoke moral or even physical disgust toward monuments, like spray painting or smearing them with repellent substances, were effective in cases like Cecil Rhodes\u2019 statue in Cape Town (Knudsen and Andersen 2019), but in the case of Coen\u2019s statue, they\u2019ve been counterproductive. This is because of the affectionate ties of many Hoorn inhabitants toward the monument and its central place, physical and metaphorical, within the community. Maybe, then, a better solution would be to \u201creframe\u201d the monument, a concept proposed by Knudsen and K\u00f8lvraa (2020). To do this, we must recontextualize colonial heritage by adopting a critical stance and giving it a different meaning and purpose (ibid.: 11). Having an updated framework challenges rigid views of heritage, by seeing it as part of a contested cultural and political process (Yunis et al. 2024: 4). We could reframe by reflecting on how celebrating a controversial historical figure can shape the present and future identity of a community. The Westfries Museum can help out by bringing to the public space, in front of Coen\u2019s monument, the voices of Indonesian historians, artists and citizens heard in the <em>Pala &#8211; Nutmeg tales of Banda <\/em>online exhibition. These voices narrate how the colonial past still affects the present. Like this, the museum can maintain its commitment to recontextualize the statue more convincingly, where a sense of tolerance is fostered that, as Marcuse would probably argue, grants anti-Coen protesters\u2019 opinions the space and attention needed to shift dominant narratives.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Bibliography\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Articles\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Blok, Gemma and Caroline Drie\u00ebnhuizen.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2020 &#8216;Coen hoort bij Hoorn&#8217;. Emoties rond een omstreden standbeeld. Open\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Universiteit. https:\/\/www.ou.nl\/-\/jan-pieterszoon-coen, accessed on 7 August\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2025.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>DutchNews.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2024 Hoorn delays decision on removing controversial statue. <em>DutchNews<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dutchnews.nl\/2024\/02\/hoorn-delays-decision-on-removing-controver\">https:\/\/www.dutchnews.nl\/2024\/02\/hoorn-delays-decision-on-removing-controver<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>sial-statue\/, accessed on 7 August 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Geerdink, Ad\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>s.a. Banda, the Loud Echo of a Massacre. <em>PALA &#8211; Nutmeg Tales of Banda<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>https:\/\/pala.westfriesmuseum.nl\/echo\/echo-article\/?lang=en, accessed on 12\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>May 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Grever, Maria and Susan Leg\u00eane\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2023 Histories of an Old Empire: The Ever-Changing Acknowledgement of Dutch\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Imperialism as a Present Past. In: Ander Delgado and Andrew Mycock (eds.),\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Conflicts in History Education in Europe: Political Context, History Teaching, and\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>National Identity<\/em>. Charlotte: Information Age Publishing. Pp. 27-48.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Grever, Maria\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2025 Traces of Existence: Public Monuments and the Dead. <em>Rethinking History <\/em>1-21.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/13642529.2025.2470486.\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/13642529.2025.2470486.<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Historic England.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>s.a. Case Study: the \u2018Coen Case\u2019, Westfries Museum, Hoorn, Netherlands. <em>Historic\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>England<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/historicengland.org.uk\/advice\/planning\/contested-heritage\/reinterpreting-h\">https:\/\/historicengland.org.uk\/advice\/planning\/contested-heritage\/reinterpreting-h<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>eritage\/case-study-the-coen-case\/, accessed on 7 August 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Johnson, Lisa\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2013 Renegotiating Dissonant Heritage: The Statue of J.P. Coen. <em>International Journal\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>of Heritage Studies <\/em>20(6): 583-598. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/13527258.2013.818571.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Ke\u0161i\u0107, Josip, Sammy C. Frenkel, Isabel Speelman and Jan Willem Duyvendak.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2022 Nativism and Nostalgia in the Netherlands. <em>Sociological Forum <\/em>37(1): 1342-1359.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/socf.12841.\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/socf.12841.<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Knudsen Britta Tim and Casper Andersen.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2019 Affective politics and colonial heritage, Rhodes Must Fall at UCT and Oxford.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>International Journal of Heritage Studies <\/em>25(3): 239-258.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/13527258.2018.148113.\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/13527258.2018.148113.<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Knudsen, Britta Tim and Christoffer K\u00f8lvraa.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2020 Affective Infrastructures of Re-emergence? Exploring Modalities of Heritage\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Practices in Nantes. <em>Heritage &amp; Society <\/em>13(1-2): 10-31.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/2159032X.2021.1883981.\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/2159032X.2021.1883981.<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Kuiper, Bram.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2021 Here Stands Our Mladic: An Analysis of the Debate surrounding the Statue of\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Jan Pieterszoon Coen in Hoorn between 2011 and 2020 <\/em>[Bachelor\u2019s thesis,\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Universiteit Utrecht]. Utrecht University. https:\/\/studenttheses.uu.nl\/handle\/20.500.12932\/39002.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Logan, William\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2015 Whose heritage? Conflicting narratives and top-down and\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>bottom-up approaches to heritage management in Yangon, Myanmar. In: Sophia\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Labadi and William Logan (eds.), <em>Urban Heritage, Development and\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sustainability<\/em>. Routledge. Pp. 256-273. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4324\/9781315728018-17.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Macdonald, Sharon.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2013 <em>Memorylands: Heritage and Identity in Europe Today<\/em>. New York: Routledge.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Marcuse, Herbert.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1970 Repressive Tolerance. In: Robert Paul Wolff, Barrington Moore Jr. and Herbert\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Marcuse (eds.), <em>A Critique of Pure Tolerance<\/em>. Beacon Press. Pp. 81-123.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Poulios, Ioannis\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2010\u00a0Moving Beyond a Values-Based Approach to Heritage\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Conservation. <em>Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites <\/em>12(2):\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>170-185. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1179\/175355210X12792909186539.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Van Engelenhoven, Gerlov\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2022 Articulating Postcolonial Memory Through the Negotiation of Legalities: The\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Case of Jan Pieterszoon Coen\u2019s Statue in Hoorn. <em>Law, Culture and the\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Humanities <\/em>20(2): 273-290. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/17438721231179132.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Volchevska-Verbrugge, Biljana.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2024 The Symbolic Potential of the Past: Political Crises, Memory Politics, and\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Europeanization in Southeastern Europe &#8211; the Case of North Macedonia\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>[doctoral thesis, Universiteit Utrecht]. Utrecht University.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.33540\/2598.\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.33540\/2598.<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Westfries Museum.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2024 Dossier Coen (Educatief Programma) Westfries Museum. <em>Westfries Museum<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/westfriesmuseum.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Dossier-Coen-2.pdf,\">https:\/\/westfriesmuseum.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Dossier-Coen-2.pdf,<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>accessed on 7 August 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Yunis, Alia, Robert Parthesius and Niccol\u00f2 Acram Cappelletto.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2024 <em>Future Stories in the Global Heritage Industry<\/em>. Routledge.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Zhang, Lingran\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2022 Towards a Better Approach: A Critical Analysis of Heritage\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Preservation Practices. <em>Open Journal of Social Sciences <\/em>10(5): 43-54.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4236\/jss.2022.105005.\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4236\/jss.2022.105005.<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Images\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Art World Database.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2022 Iswanto Hartono. <em>Art World Database<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>https:\/\/artworlddatabase.com\/portfolio\/iswanto-hartono\/, accessed on 11 August\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2025.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Dewnarain, Jerry\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2021 Banda; The Genocide of Jan Pieterszoon Coen. <em>Werkgroep Cara\u00efbische\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Letteren<\/em>. https:\/\/werkgroepcaraibischeletteren.nl\/banda-de-genocide-van-jan-pieterszoon-c\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>oen\/, accessed on 15 May 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>EWmagazine.nl\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2020 Ad Geerdink: \u2018In de geschiedenis is niks voor eeuwig\u2019. <em>EWmagazine.nl<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ewmagazine.nl\/nederland\/achtergrond\/2020\/03\/ad-geerdink-in-de-ge\">https:\/\/www.ewmagazine.nl\/nederland\/achtergrond\/2020\/03\/ad-geerdink-in-de-ge<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>schiedenis-is-niks-voor-eeuwig-198635w\/, accessed on 11 August 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Historic England.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>s.a. Case Study: the \u2018Coen Case\u2019, Westfries Museum, Hoorn, Netherlands. <em>Historic\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>England<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/historicengland.org.uk\/advice\/planning\/contested-heritage\/reinterpreting-h\">https:\/\/historicengland.org.uk\/advice\/planning\/contested-heritage\/reinterpreting-h<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>eritage\/case-study-the-coen-case\/, accessed on 7 August 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2025 Jan Pieterszoon Coen. <em>Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jan_Pieterszoon_Coen, accessed\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>on 10 August 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>2025 Statue of Jan Pieterszoon Coen. <em>Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>https:\/\/nl.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Standbeeld_van_Jan_Pieterszoon_Coen, accessed\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>on 16 May 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Renegotiating Colonial Legacies: The Controversy around Jan Pieterszoon Coen\u2019s Statue in Hoorn, the Netherlands\u00a0 Written by Ava Abtahi\u00a0 Preface\u00a0 Last year, in my \u201cCultural Anthropology &amp; Development Sociology\u201d Bachelor\u2019s, I took some courses in the minor \u201cCultural Memory of War and Conflict\u201d. It combined memory studies and heritage studies, which has made me especially interested &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/index.php\/2023\/09\/20\/heritage-and-visuals-how-to-use-visuals-to-preserve-and-document-heritage\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;On Statues: Renegotiating Colonial Legacies&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":2867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-edu-hub"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1172"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2873,"href":"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions\/2873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heritagelab.center\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}