In this blog series, the Colonial Collections Consortium presents a historical object or collection from a colonial context or situation, currently (or until recently) stored in a museum in the Netherlands that has been the focus of provenance research. Our latest blog focuses on a toad and a photograph from Suriname.
The toad specimen is kept at Naturalis Biodiversity Center and the historical photograph is stored at the Wereldmuseum. The two items, housed in different museums, have been part of a research project on the role of Indigenous and Maroon individuals in Suriname in the creation of natural and ethnographic collections currently housed in the Netherlands.
Both the toad and the photograph were taken from/in Suriname on the same day – 12 september 1904 – in the context of a series of expeditions commissioned by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society (Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap or KNAG). While knowledge developed during these expeditions is largely attributed to the Dutch individuals involved, provenance research has shown that the knowledge of involved Indigenous and Maroon individuals was crucial to the expeditions and the development of knowledge and the collection of natural specimens and artefacts now housed in Dutch museums.
In this blog you will read about how provenance research can help rectify biases and challenge dominant narratives of scientific exploration in Suriname. By examining a toad and a photograph taken on the same day yet kept in different kinds of institutions can also contribute to better understanding colonial (collection) histories, as well as the histories of institutions that house them today.
A toad and a photograph from SurinameProvenance research blog #6
In the blog series of the Consortium Colonial Collections, we present a historical object from a former colonial context or situation, currently stored in a museum in the Netherlands that has been the focus of provenance research. Each blog explains the steps taken by the respective museum or external provenance researcher to carry out the research. Which stories lie behind the object and what can they tell us about the Dutch colonial past?
This time in focus: a toad and a photograph from Suriname
Brief historical introduction
This blog focuses on a toad specimen kept at Naturalis Biodiversity Center (RMNH.RENA.29133) and a historical photograph stored at the Wereldmuseum (RV-A103-1-83). These two items, housed in different museums, have been examined in the context of broader research on the role of Indigenous and Maroon individuals in Suriname in the creation of natural and ethnographic collections currently housed in the Netherlands. It aims to reflect on the biases of the colonial archive and showcase the role that provenance research can play in developing more complete histories, in this case of scientific exploration in Suriname.
Both the toad and the photograph were taken from/in Suriname on the same day – 12 September 1904 –, in the context of a series of expeditions commissioned by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society (Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap or KNAG). Namely, the Coppename (1901), Saramacca (1902), Gonini (1903), Tapanahoni (1904) and Toemoekhoemak (1907) expeditions. The KNAG was founded in 1873 to advance research on world geography. This took place at a time when many scientific societies were being created in the Netherlands and other European countries, driven by ambitions of development and progress. During the nineteenth and twentieth century, the KNAG organized several expeditions to map territories then occupied by the Netherlands. These also involved the collection of plants, minerals, and animals, as well as cultural belongings, with the goal of developing knowledge about these contexts, its peoples and exploring their commodification potential.
Reading against the (colonial) grain
The knowledge developed during these expeditions is largely attributed to the Dutch individuals involved. Namely, military officer Alphons Franssen-Herderschee, Gerard Versteeg, a medical student and expedition doctor, and Claudius Henricus de Goeje, a Royal Dutch Navy cartographer, all three of which participated in the Gonini and Tapanahoni expeditions. However, recent and ongoing research carried out by researchers affiliated with the Naturalis Biodiversity Center – namely Caroline Fernandes Caromano, Inez de Ruiter, Tinde van Andel, Mariana Françoso, Daan Zielinski e Chamul Sardjoe – has been showing that this perception is linked to biases and erasures in the colonial archives.
The researchers have been carrying out provenance research of natural history and ethnographic collections in ways that reveal the Indigenous and Maroon perspectives and experiences, therefore challenging the dominant narrative of scientific exploration in Suriname during the early twentieth century. As they are written solely by the Dutch expedition members, the Dutch sources are biased, often reflecting racial prejudices and offering narrow perspectives on the experiences of the local laborers. Nonetheless, a critical analysis of these sources can uncover important insights. As such, the researchers have been able to unravel a more accurate and complete history of scientific exploration in this context, revealing that these expeditions depended heavily on local laborers, namely Afro-Surinamese (both Maroons and workers from Paramaribo) and Indigenous individuals. Their knowledge of the regions being explored was crucial for the survival of the teams as well as for the development of knowledge and the collection of natural specimens and artefacts now housed in Dutch museums.
Provenance research
In recent years, provenance research has increasingly been looking into microhistories, allowing for the development and dissemination of more complete (colonial) histories. In this case, the researchers have been examining the official reports written by the expedition leaders, as well as their diaries, which provide a more personal view of the experience, including details about interactions and relationships with local laborers. Correspondence is also used to confirm or challenge accounts from these diaries. A digital archive of photographs from the expeditions currently kept at the Wereldmuseum and Leiden University Libraries has been complementing the written documentation, as these photographs help to illustrate the events and the individuals described in the written accounts. Finally, in some cases, the labels on the items themselves can provide unexpected information. That is the case with the toad examined in this blog.
The toad is of the Bufo marinus species (Linnaeus, 1758), its current nomenclature is Rhinella marina (Linnaeus, 1758) and it is commonly known as cane toad and giant toad. Although scientific knowledge is often seen as ahistorical, neutral and universal, it is – similarly to the official reports describing scientific expeditions at the beginning of the twentieth century – the product of historical, political and social contexts. The use of Latin, for instance, stems from the fact that when the Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus developed his classification system in the eighteenth century, it constituted the lingua franca of educated Europeans, therefore becoming the basis for naming the natural world. Furthermore, natural elements like plants, animals, rivers and mountains were often named after the European men who supposedly discovered them. For example, two of the species collected during the Gonini expedition were named after Versteeg – the Arthrosaura reticulata versteegii and the Laelaps versteegi.
The toad’s internal record at Naturalis includes the date of collection – 12 September 1904 –, which demonstrates that it was collected during the Tapanahoni expedition. The main goals of this expedition were to map the Tapanahoni River, explore the Suriname River and acquire ethnographic collections, particularly from the Wayana and Trio communities. The label which was preserved in alcohol together with the toad includes the date, as well as the local name used for the toad – “Toddo” – in Sranan Tongo, the creole language of Suriname. The label also includes the word Telompaga which, according to the report written in 1905 by Franssen-Herderschee (“Verslag van de Tapanahoni-Expeditie”), is the Indigenous name (possibly of the Wayana people) for an area of rapids on a section of the Paloemeu River, which joins the Tapanahoni River at the village of Paloemeu. Franssen-Herderschee also mentions in his report that the Maroons call this place “Trombaka”, meaning area of return, because it’s an area with a lot of rocks, rapids and waterfalls and, therefore, of difficult access, where boats were often not able to pass. This information together already suggests that Maroon and Indigenous individuals were involved in this expedition.
From the archival research carried out by Caroline Fernandes Caromano and her colleagues, we know that the Tapanahoni expedition employed 28 individuals, mainly Afro-Surinamese laborers (unless mentioned otherwise in the following sentence). Their names were Copijn, Andreas, Koffie, Soekroe, Karel, Madonné, Paté (guide), Malo (guide), Sully (cook), Madretsma (second cook), Sindélé, Sako, Makandro, Akrosi (grandson of Oseisi) (guide/translator), Sonie (guide/translator), Melchiot, Roozendaal, Dens, Leeflang, Heerde, Henze, Teboe, Lebitetei, Abaaitong, Brandon, Ho-a-Hing (Chinese), Johannes (Indigenous, Kali’na), William (Indigenous, Kali’na).
The photograph mentioned earlier and shown above, which is also dated to 12 September 1904, demonstrates the huge difficulty that these men had to cross the Telompaga part of the Paloemeu River. It shows them pulling boats and carrying boxes with the expedition’s equipment and the collected materials. By bringing archival sources about the Tapanahoni expedition together with this historical photograph as well as the preserved toad itself, it is possible to build quite a detailed perspective about who was involved, some of the challenges they faced and their crucial contributions to the expedition.
Reflection
This blog draws on recent research carried out on natural history and ethnographic collections to show how provenance research can help rectify certain biases and challenge dominant narratives of scientific exploration in Suriname. The combined analysis of diaries and direct object analysis of distinct collections offers a depiction of local people who were previously erased from the official narrative. The deep knowledge of Indigenous and Maroon individuals of the local environment and their ability to guide Dutch scientists in locating, collecting and identifying plants and animals, as well as the agency of local leaders in facilitating the access and exchanges between the Dutch researchers and local communities, was essential for the creation of the collections now housed in Dutch museums. Local collectors and their indispensable role have been identified through provenance research, and their names should therefore be recognized and included in the records of ethnographic and natural history collections.
In this final section, we also reflect on another issue represented by museums such as Naturalis and Wereldmuseum Leiden, and which can sometimes become a challenge to provenance research. According to Western science principles, natural elements relating to plants, animals and earth systems are seen as “specimens” and are traditionally housed in natural history collections, whereas human-made objects constitute “artefacts” and are placed in ethnographic or world cultures collections. However, and as scholars and museum professionals such as Jack Ashby have argued – and as the research presented here shows – this nature-culture division is artificial. Natural specimens were and continue to be usually prepared by people for long-term preservation, and therefore could also be seen as artefacts, while artefacts are often made from natural materials, and therefore include specimens. Furthermore, although materials collected in colonial times often ended up in different kinds of collections – such as those of Naturalis and of Wereldmuseum – they were often collected by the same people, in the same places, at the same time, being divided only when arriving in Europe. By examining a toad and a photograph taken on the same day yet kept in different kinds of institutions, this blog shows that bringing together collections and corresponding documentation from different institutions can also contribute to better understanding colonial (collection) histories, as well as the histories of the institutions that house them today.
Final words
To better understand the historic and current meanings of objects, and how to ethically care for them, information about their origin and acquisition histories are essential. Provenance research is an ongoing process for museums. The Colonial Collections Consortium supports institutions that manage collections with this work by sharing knowledge and information, and by offering stakeholders a network. Would you like to know more or share information with us? Please contact us!
References and further reading
This blog was written by Sofia Lovegrove. The information presented in this blog derives from the article “Surinamese maroon and indigenous knowledge in the creation of natural and ethnographic collections housed in The Netherlands” written by Inez de Ruiter, Tinde van Andel, Mariana Françoso and Caroline Fernandes Caromano in 2025. Further research will be published soon in an article written by Ruiter and Caromano, titled “Looking Beyond Knives, Buttons and Beaded Aprons: Indigenous and Maroon Agency in Colonial Collecting Practices and the Provenance of 10 Surinamese Objects in The Netherlands” (in the journal Museum International). The specific information about the toad derives from email communication from Caromano and the research she has been carrying out in collaboration with students Chamul Sardjoe (Anton de Kom Universiteit van Suriname) and Daan Zielinski (Utrecht University), which will be expanded in the project “Provenance Research of early twentieth century Surinamese botanical and zoological collections housed at Naturalis”, funded by the Colonial Collections Consortium. The provenance research started with Caromano’s Veni Project titled “Seeds in Amazonian Body Ornaments: Encapsulated Indigenous Histories, Aesthetic and Environmental Knowledge” (2021-2024), and is currently taking place in the context of the NWA Consortium “Epistemologies: The Reinterpretation of Existing Traditional Knowledge in Suriname” coordinated by Dr. Cheryl White (Anton de Kom Universiteit van Suriname). Both projects were financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The article written by Jack Ashby is titled “The Entwined Human and Environmental Costs of the Colonial Project” and was published in 2024.
Date: 17-19 June, 2026
Location: University of Amsterdam
Organisation: Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, University of Asterdam, Dutch Research Council (NWO)
Language: English
The Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, which is part of the University of Amterdam, is organizing its 12th annual conference titled Unsettling Heritage and Memory Futures: Decolonial Trajectories Between Crisis and Possibility. This three-day conference takes place at the University of Amsterdam between 17 and 19 June 2026, and intends to foster dialogue through individual papers, themed panels and roundtable discussions across diverse geographical contexts. The program includes panels about the return of objects collected from colonial contexts, diasporic memories and colonial museums.
The conference departs from the idea that decoloniality is not merely an academic lens but a profound reorientation of knowledge and power. While rooted in twentieth-century South American scholarship, decoloniality now inspires a generation of scholarship and social movements. After years of vibrant scholarship and activism, we stand at a pivotal juncture. This conference brings together scholars, practitioners, artists, and activists to reflect on what decolonial approaches have disrupted, dismantled, and dreamt anew—and to critically assess their strengths, limitations, and futures. As resurgent nationalisms and neocolonial forces challenge gains made in diversifying heritage institutions, democratising memory practices, and centring marginalised voices, how do we sustain decolonial futures that remain precarious? This international conference examines decoloniality as a transformative praxis that reshapes our engagement with heritage, memory, and material culture. You can find the full program below.
This conference is free of charge. You can register your attendance here.
New video tutorials help you navigate easily through the Colonial Collections DatahubThe Colonial Collections Datahub is a digital platform that brings together, enriches and provides insights into information on collections from colonial contexts. In doing so, it brings together information that is currently scattered across various institutions, which is important for doing provenance research. To help users navigate the platform, the Consortium will launch a series of video tutorials. With these, the user can learn more about the platform. The video tutorials can be found on the homepage of the Datahub.
What can you do with the Datahub?
Heritage from Suriname, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint-Maarten and many other countries and areas can be found in the Colonial Collections Datahub. Aside from offering an accesible platform to search for objects, the Datahub provides a space to add your own perspectives to further enrich the data. In addition, you can become part of a community and provide objects with missing context and narratives.
The video tutorials
The series consists of six videos in which you learn everything about using the Colonial Collections Datahub.
Introducing the Datahub
In this video you will learn about the core functionalities of the Datahub. For example, that the Datahub consists of the elements objects, communities and research aids; but also how you can use the Datahub in a different language. Furthermore, you will learn how to make an account. With an account, you can use all the functionalities of the Datahub and organize objects into personal lists.
Searching objects and belongings
In collections in the Netherlands, you can find many objects that were collected from a colonial context. In the Datahub, you can search which objects there are and learn more about how they ended up in the Netherlands. In this second video tutorial, you learn about the different ways in which you can use the Datahub to search for objects. With the use of filters, you can make your query as broad or as specific as you want, you can change how to view search results and in which order. It also explains more about objectpages and which information you can find there; think about metadata, local contexts, images and ownership information.
Creating and joining communities
The Colonial Collections Datahub can not only be used to search for objects, but also to find peers to shate information and knowledge with. Users can, for example, find other researchers with the same cultural background or the same research subject through the Datahub’s communities. You can make a new community or become a member of an already existing community.
Adding narratives
A large part of the information about objects in Dutch museum collections that were collected in the colonial period is written and registered from a Eurocentric perspective. This includes the information visible in the Datahub. This is why it is especially important for collections from colonial contexts that perspectives of communities of origin are added to the objects’ metadata. In this video, you will learn how to add perspectives and missing narratives to the objects, using the Datahub.
Research aids
The NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide studies, one of the partens of the Consortium, has created digital research aids for the Datahub. In this video you will learn more about how to use them. The digital research aids are one of the three elements of the Datahub and were created to assist in doing provenance research on these collections. Some of the research aids include more general information about doing this type of research, while others focus on collectors, institutions or locations.
Local Context Notices
In the last video tutorial, you will learn how to add local context annotations to objects in the Datahub. These context notices are an important addition to objects from colonial contexts, because they offer space for cultural sensitivities and values of communities of origin. With these notices, perspectives from communities of origin are added to the Eurocentric perspectives that were used to describe and register these objects in museum collections.
Date: Starting from 21 April 2026, several dates in April, June and July
Location: Online
Organisation: WiNoDa Knowledge Lab
Language: English
Modern research has developed advanced frameworks and procesudres to ensure high ethical standards that protect humans, nature, and cultural heritage. However, when it comes to scientific collections, researchers often assume that these materials are largely “unproblematic” and that ethical issues are minimal. Yet, as one examines collection practices and historical contexts, many complex ethical issues become apparent. These include colonial histories of acquisition, power imbalance, overlooked indigenous rights, the reproduction of discriminatory stereotypes, potential risks to endangered species, and the complex interplay between nature, human history and contemporary politics.
In this seminar series, WiNoDa Knowledge Lab explores the ethics of data derived from scientific collections, covering topics ranging from dinosaur fossils to looted artefacts, as well as threathened species and genetic resources. Speakers will highight the importance of understanding the historical and ethical context of collection data, discuss the challenges of working with such materials responsibly, and present practical approaches and tools for addressing these complexities. The series aims to foster dialogue and collaboration towards more just, transparent, and responsible practices in the management and use of collection data. Several sessions focus specifically on the role of indigenous communities, restitution and objects in scientific collections collected from colonial contexts.
All sessions will be held online and in English. Participation is free, but registration is required. Click the button below to learn more about the themes, dates and times of the different seminars.
Workshop Provenance Research Colonial CollectionsDate: 21 May and 10 June
Location: Wereldmuseum Leiden and a location in Amersfoort
Organisation: ErfgoedAcademie and the Cultural Heritage Agency
Language: Dutch
Colonial collections consist of heritage collected from former (Dutch) colonial contexts. These objects changed ownership in possibly problematic circumstances during the colonial periode. Museum professionals and others working in collection-managing institutions have an important task of conducting provenance research into these collections. This workshop, organised by the ErfgoedAcademie and the Cultural Heritage Agency, is meant to support them in conducting this important task.
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Werk jij bij een museum of archief (bijvoorbeeld als curator of registrator) en heb je in je werk te maken met koloniale collecties? Heb je behoefte aan meer context? Zoek je nog naar argumenten om het belang van herkomstonderzoek duidelijk te maken? Weet je simpelweg niet hoe en waar te beginnen? Wil je handvatten voor onderliggende dilemma’s? Dan is deze cursus iets voor jou!
In de cursus staat herkomstonderzoek naar koloniale collecties centraal. Tijdens de eerste dag leer je over de geschiedenis achter koloniale collecties, het huidige beleid en de verantwoordelijkheden van diverse spelers in het stelsel. Ook krijg je concrete tips over de omgang met koloniale collecties van een museum met veel ervaring op dit gebied.
Tijdens de tweede cursusdag gaan we actief aan de slag met de Datahub van het Consortium Koloniale Collecties. Daarnaast zoomen we in op jouw eigen praktijk aan de hand van een casus die je voorbereid hebt. Bovendien bespreken we met elkaar een aantal belangrijke dilemma’s waar je mogelijk mee te maken krijgt.
Looted Art Unraveled #3Date: 28 May 2026
Time: 16:00
Location: Resistance Museum Amsterdam
Organisation: Expertisecentrum Restitutie (ECR) of the NIOD and the Resistance Museum Amsterdam
Language: Dutch
The Expert Centre Restitution (ECR) of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Resistance Museum Amsterdam present Roofkunst Ontrafeld, a series of lectures on lesser-known sides of looted art and restitution. Historians connected to the NIOD will present recent research and surprising insights and engage in dialogue with the audience, moderated by Yuki Kho. On 28 May, researcher Maarten van der Bent will present the lecture De Dubois-collectie: 28.000 fossielen en een Indische stem.
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In september 2025 besloot de Nederlandse overheid dat een verzamelding van maar liefst 28.000 fossielen uit de collectie van Naturalis teruggaat naar Indonesië. Deze Dubois-collectie, die onder leiding van de Nederlandse paleontoloog Eugène Dubois eind negentiende eeuw in Indonesië werden opgegraven, werd al decennialang door Indonesië teruggevraagd. Minder bekend is echter dat de roep om restitutie in de koloniale tijd klonk. Wat was het belang van deze ‘wetenschappelijk collectie’ voor Nederlanders, Indische Nederlanders en Indonesiërs?
Indigenous Futures: Towards Policy on Ancestral Remains in the NetherlandsDate: 12-13 May, 2026
Time: 10:00-17:00
Location: Wereldmuseum Leiden
Organisation: Wereldmuseum Leiden, Research Center for Material Culture, Colonial Collections Consortium.
Language: English
Together with members of the Colonial Collections Consortium, Wereldmuseum Leiden and Research Center for Material Culture are organizing an international workshop to contribute to policy frameworks on the repatriation/rematriation and handling of ancestral remains in the Netherlands. Because of the way in which ancestral remains entered museum collections, developing a national policy framework necessitates centering the perspectives of Indigenous and formerly colonized people. This workshop brings together theory and policy input, to understand current policy frameworks in other localities and contemporary (institutional) restitution practices to develop a more comprehensive national policy shaped by Indigenous people from across the world.
How might a policy look when we foreground the lived realities and voices of those past and presence whose lives were most affected by colonial and post-colonial practices of collecting, researching displaying human and ancestral remains in museums and other heritage institutions? Should ancestral remains “acquired” under colonial situations be researched or exhibited within museums today? And how might policies embed Indigenous struggles for self-determination and sovereignty in their framework? These are only some of the questions that this workshop focuses on. More information about the workshop is available below.
International Provenance Research DayDate: 8 April 2026
Location: Online and in-person. Various museums, universities and other heritage institutions in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy and the Unites States.
Language: English
On Wednesday 8 April it is International Provenance Research Day. On this day, an initiative of the Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung, museums, universities and other heritage institutions organise events and publications to give attention to the importance of provenance research in responsible collection management. Part of this, is the importance of provenance research for a careful handling of collections from colonial contexts. These events have different formats, such as workshops, lectures, book presentations and guided museum tours. Below, you can find two examples of events that are also accesible online. Click the button below to take a look at all the events that focus on colonial collections.
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva is organising the online discussion Legal Provenance and TWAIL. This discussion explores provenance through the lens of TWAIL (Third World Approaches to International Law). As the question of a cultural object’s provenance may be complicated by histories of imperial acquisition and competing property law regimes, we hope that this perspective will provide the language and theoretical toolkit needed to address pertinent issues facing cultural institutions today, as well as foster an open dialogue on the postcolonial dimensions of cultural heritage law. More information is available hier.
University of Leipzig
The Institute of Anatomy at the University of Leipzig is hosting the online conversation Entangled Histories: A Conversation on Ancestral Remains from today’s South Africa at Leipzig University. The insititute is currently conducting provenance research into their collection of skulls, the initial findings of which will be shared during the event. Additionally, the discussion will focus on the intertwined histories of racist research practices, international acquisition networks and colonial wars. More information is available hier.
Date: 9 – 11 June, 2026
Location: State Museum Hannover
Organisation: Museumverband Niedersachsen und Bremen, in samenwerking met het Netzwerk Provenienzforschung in Niedersachsen.
Language: English
The Indonesian phrase pasang surut — “the tide in and out” — evokes the continuous movement of people, objects, and ideas across the seas that once linked Europe and the Indonesian archi-pelago. These currents shaped the emergence of colonial collec-tions but also suggest the possibility of renewed circulation: of knowledge, accountability, and dialogue.
The international conference Pasang Surut: Provenance Research as a Contribuition to Decolonisation and Trajectories of Restitution brings together academic and collection experts, as well as key figures from the fields of art, culture, and politics from Indonesia, Germany, and the Netherlands, to discuss the transformative potential of post-colonial provenance research as a contribution to processes of re-connection and decolonisation. Please register by 15 May 2026 at annekathrin.krieger@landesmuseum-hannover.de More information is available in de save the date below.