On Friday, 17 December 2021, Professor Gert Oostindie was appointed an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. The royal honour was bestowed on him by Henri Lenferink, Mayor of the City of Leiden, once Oostindie had delivered his farewell address on ‘The Future of the Colonial Past’ at Leiden University’s Academy Building.

Gert Oostindie (born in 1955) became the head of the Caribbean Studies department at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies / Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KITLV-KNAW) in 1983 and was appointed director of the institute in 2000. He has also served as Professor of Colonial and Postcolonial History at Leiden University since 2006.  Between 1993 and 2006, Oostindie was Professor of the Anthropology and Comparative Sociology of the Caribbean at Utrecht University.

Farewell address

In his speech focusing on the colonial and slavery past of the Netherlands and its contemporary resonance, Oostindie emphasized that talking about colonial history can serve an important social and unifying purpose. He pointed to the need for identifying nuances, differences in perspective and contradictory voices when telling this history, and for allowing for other dimensions such as emotion and imagination, with a good understanding of the historical context as a prerequisite.

Gert Oostindie’s farewell address entitled ‘The future of the colonial past’ can be found here.

Photos

Gert Oostindie received a royal honour. The decoration was pinned on him by his wife, Ingrid Koulen, on behalf of the mayor of Leiden. Photographer: Froukje Vernooij.

Below is the English translation of the press release from the City of Leiden
17 December 2021

High royal honour for departing Professor Gert Oostindie

On his retirement as Director of the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KITLV-KNAW), Professor Gerrit Jan (Gert) Oostindie was appointed an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. Mayor Lenferink expressed a great appreciation for the crucial role that Oostindie has played, pointing to his significant contributions to scholarship, public debate and the improvement of relations within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as well as to his outstanding administrative capabilities and exceptional dedication.

The KITLV-KNAW institute researches extremely sensitive issues, and Professor Oostindie (born in 1955) was pivotal in increasing understanding of Indonesia and the Caribbean and also the relationship of the Netherlands to them. Despite budget cuts, he managed to transform what was an institute with the threefold task of collection management, research and the publication of scholarly work on Indonesia and the Caribbean into an extensively rejuvenated and successful organization focusing exclusively on research. Under his leadership, a great amount of research was published and external funding was gained. In 2018, the KITLV-KNAW was even awarded the highest rating (excellent) in an international assessment. Close colleagues describe Oostindie as a source of inspiration because of his academic productivity, his versatility and his passionate commitment to the connecting academia and society. His modesty, sensitivity and expertise make him someone others enjoy working with, and do so successfully.

KITLV-KNAW

The KITLV-KNAW institute researches extremely sensitive issues, and Professor Oostindie (born in 1955) was pivotal in increasing understanding of Indonesia and the Caribbean and also the relationship of the Netherlands to them. Despite budget cuts, he managed to transform what was an institute with the threefold task of collection management, research and the publication of scholarly work on Indonesia and the Caribbean into an extensively rejuvenated and successful organization focusing exclusively on research. Under his leadership, a great amount of research was published and external funding was gained. In 2018, the KITLV-KNAW was even awarded the highest rating (excellent) in an international assessment. Close colleagues describe Oostindie as a source of inspiration because of his academic productivity, his versatility and his passionate commitment to the connecting academia and society. His modesty, sensitivity and expertise make him someone others enjoy working with, and do so successfully.

A leading international scholar

Professor Oostindie enjoys a worldwide reputation as a leading scholar in the field of researching and understanding sensitive issues, such as memory, forgetting and the commemoration of slavery history and a colonial/postcolonial past. In this age of polarization, his role in social debate is of great significance, with Dutch society at the same time becoming broadly aware of the importance of debating that shared past in an open way, of bringing all perspectives to the fore, and of making them audible.

Research into the decolonization of the Dutch East Indies (1945-1950)

Oostindie managed to convince Dutch politicians of the great importance and urgency of research into the 1945-1950 period (the period of decolonization) in the former Dutch East Indies. Five departments commissioned the research, which is soon to be completed. This was an exceptionally significant achievement. Gert Oostindie was also the driving force behind an extensive study of Rotterdam’s colonial and slavery history.

More information: Municipality of Leiden, [email protected].