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Indonesian Yard
Every day
If you walk towards the ‘Lint’ area of the museum or get off the tram at the ‘Landgoed’ stop, you will come across a little square with an exquisite summer house and a magnificent baroque garden. This is where you will also find the Indonesian Yard, a garden full of memories of life in the Dutch East Indies. Gardens and the outdoors play an important role in these memories.
Dutch Indonesians were born and bred in the former Dutch East Indies. Between 1945 and 1965 more than 300,000 people were ‘repatriated’ to the Netherlands. For some this ‘repatriation’ was voluntary, while for others it was enforced. Most of these people had never even visited the Netherlands before.
Informal garden
The Indonesian culture is kept alive in the Netherlands by the children and grandchildren of those who were repatriated. It is expressed in, amongst other things, the design of their gardens. Here in the Netherlands, however, the plants and weather are completely different from those in that part of the world, so what do you do? You create a wonderfully informal garden with typically Dutch ferns, geraniums, and cherry laurels. You then add bamboo, cannas and gerberas to create an atmosphere that encourages people to talk about their ties to the Dutch East Indies. That is exactly what happens in the Indonesian Yard.