What is Bersama Collective?

Our collective is built on continuous conversations, honest reflections and personal narratives.

In many places in the world, colonialism is something still ongoing with people fighting for equality and independence. Through music, theater, film, photography and spoken word we heal old wounds, create art, decolonize history and work towards a shared future.

Why

There is a gap in The Netherlands and in the general public when it comes to knowledge on the colonial era. In the education system, in our history books and in our societal archive in general, the West and Indo-European perspectives dominate. Our project wants to center the Indonesian perspective on the colonial era and enable often overlooked perspectives to be heard. We want our performance and website to be an accessible starting point for learning more about the colonial history of The Netherlands and Indonesia and how it still leaves traces in the present. Our exchange teaches us more about the impact of colonialism, the importance of dialogue and the need for more perspectives.

How

Through an interdisciplinary collaboration we want to learn more about our connected history, cultural heritage and identity. Our performance and website is an accessible starting point for learning more about the colonial history and how it still leaves traces in the present. The Indo-Dutch-Swedish artists started a creative process together in Depok in February 2023. Through both an artistic and personal exchange, we opened a conversation about the colonial past of Indonesia and The Netherlands, shared our personal stories and art with each other, wrote new music, spoken word and theater pieces together and taught each other our different traditions.

What

Bersama Collective is a place for continuous conversations, open dialogue and artistic collaboration in order to create interdisciplinary performances. We make music, theater, film, photography, spoken word and mix it all together.

This first meeting was important and created a foundation for us to continue and deepen our exchange. As a next step, our group wants to come together in The Netherlands to extend our collaboration. Our partner Akbar and the rest of our Indonesian collaborators have initiated an idea of reenactment and interpretation of a lost cultural item, a film named ‘Nyai Dasimah’. We want to reenact this story.

Now

Many months later… our exchange around ‘Nyai Dasimah’ has fruited into a real life event coming on Saturday 14th of September in Theater Dakota, The Hague!