Spark Narration visits the Black Archives to learn more about the Suriname history in the Netherlands.

Spark Narration visits the Black Archives to learn more about the Suriname history in the Netherlands. Isabelle Britto, historian and researcher, and active in the museum field, welcomes the Spark Narrattion participants and shows them around the archive.

The building that houses The Black Archives is called the Hugo Olijfveldhuis, property of Vereniging Ons Suriname (the Hugo Olivehouse of the Suriname Association). Isabelle Britto explains why the building is important to them. “It is a cradle for previous generations who cared about the Surinamese community in the Netherlands”. The goal of the Black Archives is to maintain the cultural knowledge regarding Suriname.

The Black Archives has one of the biggest book collections regarding Suriname in the Netherlands. Something else that makes the Black Archives special: they have over 10.000 books in the archive. ‘We haven’t even archived all the books yet,’ Isabelle says. 

Spark Narration

Spark Narration is an education program that guides and facilitates productions characterised by an interdisciplinary approach to design and journalism. This year’s theme is: “Suriname in Amsterdam North”. Eight participants are working on four different projects, in groups of two. This visit gives the participants extra insight of the Surinamese culture and history, which can be helpful for their research.

Isabelle tells the Spark Narration participants stories about the Surinamese Waldo Heilbron, and about Otto and Hermine Huiswoud. They all have an important meaning to the archive and community. For example, Heilbron gave all his published books and other books regarding his investigations to the Black Archives. He worked as a sociologist at the University of Amsterdam and investigated post-colonialism, the Trans-Atlantic slavery and its heritage, but also racism and historiography. His goal was to decolonize historiography and social science by using alternative methods.

After listening to all the stories, it’s time for a cup of tea and time to dive into the archive. Isabelle gives the participants an exercise to find a book or object which inspires them and their projects.

Facing Black exhibition

The Facing Black exhibition opened very recently when Spark Narration visited the Hugo Olivehouse of the Suriname Association. The participants had the honor to be the first group to walk into the exhibition. The exhibition shows how colonial images of Black people became part of the Dutch 'cultural archive' and our everyday thinking and traditions by using unique archival material from the heritage collection of The Black Archives, private collections and visual art from other institutions.It also shows how there has always been resistance to various forms of racism and how Black people themselves have given and continue to give meaning to their culture and identity.

It’s very unique to see all of the different components of the exhibition. The participants are intrigued by all the unique stories and this profound history. There are many stories that as-yet haven’t been told, or known to many Dutch citizens. The exhibition is reallya recommendation to visit.

As the group gathers at the archive again, Isabelle answers questions from the Spark narration participants about the exhibition. You can see that everyone has their own interests; so is Giulia intrigued by a package of rice for her project, and Sarah finds interesting zines which she asks questions about. The group settles in a circle to start a discussion about all the books and objects that inspire them or give food for thought. This way, they are now able to look at their Spark Narration project from a different angle and gather more information that they might have been missing.

The end of this edition of Spark Narration is almost in sight. In May we are planning our end-event. There is more information regarding the location and final date to come! Follow Aced and VersPers to be up-to-date about the upcoming program.

Emma van den Hof