A Series of Firsts: Australian & Dutch Representations of the Dutch East India Company (VOC)

Abstract

Museums are often seen as objective providers of the truth. In this thesis, that notion is contested and, instead, the idea is explored that museums actively construct representations. These representations are steered by politics and discourses. Nonetheless, most visitors to historical museums are unaware that they are being confronted with representations of the past, that they are shown only specific histories and that these representations are displayed towards certain ends. The thesis focuses on the history of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and its representations in the Netherlands and in Australia. In both countries, this history is seen with a certain amount of pride. Literature and museum exhibitions have been investigated to see how these countries represent the VOC and analyzed to understand why these representations are used. Discourses and political movements such as nationalism, colonialism and post-colonial theory are revealed behind some of these representations of the VOC. The representations in each country are very different, due to the different reigning discourses which have influenced museums and literature. In the Netherlands, these representations have altered over time along with changes in the dominant discourses. In Australia, the discourses have changed but the representations have not yet followed suit. Therefore, a suggestion is made for the use of reflexive representation, through which museums, in their exhibitions, uncover representations and the political powers behind them. Visitors will then be confronted with the subjective and interpretative work of museums and will no longer accept a museum’s representation of history as an objective fact. History is revealed for what it is: merely one version of the past.