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Diasporic Indigeneity: Surinamese Indigenous Identities in the Netherlands

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Diasporic Indigeneity: Surinamese Indigenous Identities in the Netherlands Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education: Centre for Sámi Studies Diasporic Indigeneity: Surinamese Indigenous Identities in the Netherlands Cecilia Uitermark Thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Indigenous Studies – June 2021 Diasporic Indigeneity: Surinamese Indigenous Identities in the Netherlands By Cecilia Uitermark Master of Philosophy in Indigenous Studies Centre for Sámi Studies Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education UiT the Arctic University of Norway (Spring 2021) Supervised by: Professor Torjer Andreas Olsen Associate Professor Marcela Douglas Cover Photo: Logo Information Folder P.I.O.N. Congress 1988 (P.I.O.N., 1988) Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my greatest gratitude towards Martha Sabajo, Leander Vermaning, John Wattamaleo and the other participants for allowing me to have a peak in your world and sharing about your Indigenous roots and identity with me. Thank you for your time, openness and kindness. I really enjoyed talking to each and every one of you, and I hope our paths will cross in the future. My door is always open. My sincere gratitude towards my supervisors Torjer Andreas Olsen and Marcela Douglas. Thank you for your time, constructive feedback and support. It has been great to have other people help you organize and prioritize your thoughts and figure out the chaos that is writing a master thesis. Everyone at the Sámi centre: thank you! You are running a great program, you really care about all the students and I have learned a great deal these past 2 years, for which I am very grateful. My thanks are also going to the Arctic University of Norway for providing the necessary resources. My experience in Norway would not have been the same without my dear fellow MIS students and friends, how glad I am that we met. I have learned so much from you in so many different ways, and although our shared adventure was cut short, I am very grateful that we got to know each other and share meaningful moments together. I hope we get to see one another face to face in the future once the world has gotten a bit closer to how we knew it before. Then there are some other people who helped me one way or the other during this process: I would like to immensely thank Ellen-Rose for your kindness in helping an unknown master student, sending me your work and introducing me to people in Suriname and the Netherlands. Also Glenn thank you very much for your time, help and the nice conversation we had. My thanks to Kendyl for proofreading and your detailed feedback, it has been very useful! I would also like to thank Paulette for always sending me relevant links and information as a fellow Dutchie, and for making me aware of the Indigenous Liberation series. Thank you to Xeración for welcoming me with open arms and offering me an office space to work from, always full of laughter and positivity. I would like to thank my friends and family, and especially my mother Laetitia for helping me with accessing sources at the University of Amsterdam and sending pictures when I was working from a different country. My thanks are also going to my brother Justus for having a look at one of my chapters and giving feedback. My thanks also go to Bahar for always asking how it was going, thinking along and your kind words of support. Finally, I would like to say that it has been a very unexpected and challenging year. The process of writing a master thesis is already difficult as it is, but the corona pandemic for sure did not make it easier. Not only starting from scratch again and figuring out how to do research during a lockdown, but most of all the mental challenge of staying motivated and making it to the finish line with everything else that was going on. This leaves one person who deserves the biggest thank you of all, my dearest Nadège. I cannot emphasize enough how big of a support you have been for me throughout it all, whether it was thinking along, reading my draft throughout the night, your immense patience or a simple hug when it was all a bit too much: un million de merci pour tout ton amour. Abstract The presence of Surinamese Indigenous peoples in the Netherlands is not a new nor recent phenomenon. Although in small numbers, Surinamese Indigenous peoples have crossed the ocean (both voluntarily and involuntary) and made their way to the Netherlands throughout the centuries. This continues to this day, yet little to nothing has been written about these trajectories, demonstrating the lack of attention for Indigenous perspectives in the Dutch context. This research project aims to shine a light on these predominantly underrepresented migration and dwelling histories, as well as the contemporary lived experiences and identity articulations of Surinamese Indigenous diasporic lives in the Netherlands. By using elements from diaspora theory, intersectionality, place-making through the hub, urban Indigenous studies and articulation theory, this research wishes to show that one does not cease to be Indigenous when living in an urban, diasporic context, acknowledging the creative and diverse ways Surinamese Indigenous peoples living in diaspora are making ‘a place here by keeping alive a strong feeling of attachment elsewhere’ (Clifford, 2013). Table of Contents 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Scope of the Thesis & Main Research Questions........................................................ 1 1.2 Background Information .............................................................................................. 2 1.2.1 The Indigenous & Tribal Peoples of Suriname .................................................... 2 1.2.2 Suriname & the Netherlands ................................................................................ 3 1.2.3 The First Stories of Surinamese Indigenous Presence in the Netherlands ........... 5 1.3 Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 6 1.4 Relevance ..................................................................................................................... 9 2 Decolonizing Research Paradigm: Methodology & Methods .......................................... 11 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 11 2.1.1 The 4 R’s of Indigenous Research ..................................................................... 12 2.2 Research Methods...................................................................................................... 13 2.2.1 Interviews ........................................................................................................... 13 2.2.2 Archival Research .............................................................................................. 15 2.3 On Writing History .................................................................................................... 15 2.3.1 Positionality & Reflexivity................................................................................. 17 3 Theoretical Framework: Diasporic Indigeneity ............................................................... 18 3.1 Urban Indigenous Experiences .................................................................................. 18 3.2 Diasporic Indigeneity ................................................................................................ 20 3.2.1 Historization of Diaspora Experiences ............................................................... 21 3.2.2 Home(land) & Belonging ................................................................................... 22 3.3 Additional Analytical Tools ...................................................................................... 23 3.3.1 Articulation Theory ............................................................................................ 23 3.3.2 Intersectionality .................................................................................................. 25 4 The History of Surinamese Indigenous Presence in the Netherlands .............................. 26 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 26 4.2 Waves of Migration: the First Surinamese Indigenous Diaspora Organizations ...... 26 4.3 The Interior War ........................................................................................................ 29 4.4 Activism & Humanitarian Aid .................................................................................. 33 4.5 Shift in Alliances: Tucayana Amazones .................................................................... 39 4.6 The Position of Surinamese Indigenous Peoples in the Netherlands ........................ 42 4.7 Discussion .................................................................................................................. 45 5 Contemporary Surinamese Indigenous Identity Articulations in the Netherlands ........... 49 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 49 5.2 Returns, Home(land) & Belonging ............................................................................ 49 5.3 Indigenous Diasporic Consciousness & Diaspora Space .......................................... 56 5.3.1 Confrontation with Marginalization ..................................................................
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