Art History guest lecture - ADIEYATNA FAJRI (RUG/NIOD): 'The Legacy of Colonial Violence: The Demolition and the Looting of the Royal Palace of Banten in 1808'

Abstract

In November 1808, a Dutch colonial military expedition to the Sultanate of Banten resulted in the complete demolition of the royal palace, which served as the center of both political and cultural authority. This event occurred more than 200 years ago, yet the impact and memory of this colonial violence still resonate in many ways—in the region of Banten, at the national Indonesian level, as well as in the Netherlands. As is the case throughout Indonesia, the objects, archaeological sites, and shared cultural memories associated with this colonial violence also provide fertile ground for new narratives, cultural activities, economic undertakings, and political campaigns. My research aims to to historicize the erasure and destruction of cultural properties within the context of the early nineteenth-century colonial states reformation and to investigate the long-lasting impact of this violence on present-day Banten cultural identity formation.

Biography

Adieyatna Fajri is a PhD researcher at Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA, University of Groningen) and NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide studies. He works within the framework project titled "Pressing Matter: Ownership, Value, and the Question of Colonial Heritage in Museums." His research analyzes the long-term legacy of the demolition of the Banten royal palace by the colonial regime in 1808 through the processes of musealization and heritage formation. He also serves as teaching staff member in the Department of Archaeology at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. His research interests include the archaeology of colonialism, the archaeology of Islam, and the politics of heritage.