Date: Wednesday July 9 2025
Time: 2:00 – 6:00 PM (CEST)
Location: AGORA Room 2: Main Building HG-3CO2
Address: VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam
Organisation: University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, The Netherlands Sri Lanka Foundation, The Netherlands and the Vrije Universiteit (Free University) Amsterdam
Language: English
The taking of cultural objects from Sri Lanka during the Dutch colonial encounter in this country has raised fundamental questions of justice and legality. Given the continuous evolution of the notion of justice, an important issue is the question of who will decide and on what basis the decision will be made, on which injustices emerged in the historical entanglement of the United Provinces and then Ceylon in general and specifically in relation to cultural artefacts. When considering the causes for such historical injustice it is asserted that there may be a difference of approach to governance. To address the issues of historical injustice there is a need to broaden and deepen the knowledge of the legal basis of the early colonial encounter.
This NWO funded project attempts to provide insights into addressing questions such as: How to recognise and acknowledge these injustices? If objects or artefacts, now in the Netherlands, are to be returned to Sri Lanka then what exactly is being returned, resitituted, or even restored? What are the (provenance research) methodological and policy making considerations that needs to be addressed? How could shared and collective learning be organised? These are some of the key ideas that will be addressed in the project.
This symposium is to provide a flavour of the NWO funded project topics. The following four themes would be presented to the participants in the anticipation of critical questioning by and constructive feed-back from the participants of the symposium.
Programme Introduction by:
- Naazima Kamardeen, (Prof. Dr.), University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Wouter Veraart, (Prof. Dr.) Free University, Amsterdam
- Wayne Modest (Prof. Dr.) Wereldmuseum, Leiden
- Dilip Tambyrajah (Mr) Netherlands-Sri Lanka Foundation, Netherlands
Project content presentations
1. Redressing Historical Injustice:
A Study of the legal entanglements in relation to Colonial Cultural Property in the Netherlands-Sri Lankan Context | By: Dumindu Madushan (Mr) University of Colombo. PhD candidate.
2. Getting the Story Right:
Collaborative Research to Review and Advance the Practice of Provenance Research | By: Darshi Thoradeniya, (Dr.) University of Colombo
3. Preserving for Posterity:
Legality of digitizing Sri Lankan objects in Dutch museum of the colonial period and creating a repository of object records | By: Tavini Nanayakkara (Ms) University of Colombo
4. Building Sustainable Networks for Collaboration:
A Lab for Transdisciplinary Colonial Collection Studies and Practice in Sri Lanka (& international cooperation) | By: Dilip Tambyrajah & Nirmal Dewasiri (Prof. Dr.) University of Colombo
Confirmation participation
Please confirm participation by sending a brief email by 1st July 2025 to Dilip Tambyrajah at: dilip.tambyrajah@wxs.nl