THE GAMELAN DIGUL of INDONESIA CALLING

Anthony Liem wrote a text about the history of the Gamelan Digul, the first gamelan in Australia, which is an important historical object illustrating the fight for Indonesian independance against Dutch colonial rule. This gamelan is at display at the Monash University, Performing Arts Centre in Melbourne in the Margaret Kartomi Gallery.

Andries Deinum and a find of The Camera and I

After some 80 years after it was written by Ivens, a bound typoscript of his first autobiography The Camera and I, was found in Portland, Oregon, USA. Ella Thomas, who is for 32 years Director of Education for the Northwest Film Center, the Northwest region's largest and most comprehensive film arts organization, writes how she found it:

Oscar Winning '20 Days in Mariupol' (2023) and Ivens's '40 Days in Madrid' (1937)

When watching Mstyslav Chernov’s Oscar-winning film 20 Days in Mariupol, Alex Vernon, professor in English and specialist in 20th century war-literature, could not but see parallels with The Spanish Earth. This documentary by Joris Ivens, John Fernhout and Ernest Hemingway was the result of 40 days of film shooting in besieged Madrid in 1937. Both films draws on personal footage with an harrowing account of civilians caught in the siege, in 1936 a new kind of warfare.

European Film Academy honors Ivens and Liftbridge as Treasure of European Film Culture

The European Film Academy (EFA) honors Joris Ivens, The Bridge (1928) and the vertical-lift bridge in Rotterdam (Koningshaven Bridge) by including it as Treasures of European Film Culture. It is for the first time that a Dutch filmmaker and location is included in this growing list of in the meanwhile 49 European locations in 24 countries, which or of extreme importance for the European film culture. According to the EFA these places of historical value need to be maintained and protected not just now but also for generations to come.Famou ...

'Selling a Colonial War' proofs Dutch propaganda and censorship

After Joris Ivens made Indonesia Calling (1946) he was immedialtely accused of anti-Dutch propapaganda. Officers of the Secret Service also immediately proposed to withdraw Ivens'passport. Not in 1951, but already in 1945. In a new documentary Selling a Colonial War filmmaker In-Soo Radstake casts a broad view of perpectives, among others a remarkable view of former Dutch minister of foreign affairs Ben Bot. He confirms that it was the Dutch government itself which used pure propaganda, censorship and concealing language to disinform or not inf ...

Absurd spy thriller about Ivens and Van Dongen is indeed absurd

The Second Stage production of Spain in the Tony Kiser Theater in New York presented in December '23 a play about The Spanish Earth with Joris Ivens, Helen van Dongen, Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos as the protagonists. Jen Silverman writes that Spain is not “a history play in the most conventional meaning.” It’s “set in 1936 in the West Village,” she says, then adds, “Sort of.” "This 90-minute comedy-drama is an absurdist-tinged fantasy that seizes a moment of history and bends it to the breaking point", she continues. And ...

A performance of Rain at a Climate Change programme

During a concert at the 'Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy' University of Music and Theater in Leipzig the subject of Climate Change was íllustrated' by Ivens' film Rain/Regen (1929) accompanying Hanns Eisler’s "14 Arten den Regen zu beschreiben" (*Fourteen Ways to Describe Rain). In a packed great concert hall this magnificent performance became a marvellous highlight of the night. The musicians played with energy, joy and much competence. Hanns Eislers and Joris Ivens art works were much appreciated by the audience and critics as well.The initia ...

A Gift of Ivens films

Recently the Ivens Foundation received six reels of a working copy of The 17th Parallel (1968). Laurence Lefèvre gave these reels to André Stufkens in her place in Montreuil. She got this working copy from her sister, the late Liliane Korb, who passed away in 2022. At the age of 26 Liliane Korb edited this long documentary about the peoples war and fight for independence of the Vietnamese people against the US occupation. Previously the Ivens Foundation also received an old print of Borinage from the Limburg Museum. Liliane Korb Lilia ...

How an Ivens film helps to reconstruct cultural heritage in Valparaiso

In 1963 Joris Ivens made, together with students from the university in Santiago de Chile, a poetic film mosaic of the Chilean harbour city Valparaiso, called …à Valparaiso. This film is part of the cultural heritage of this city, in 2003 elected UNESCO World heritage. Amanda Panizza Hevia published a plan to reconstruct the Casa de Los Siete Espejos (‘The House with Seven Mirrors’) as part of a new department of the regional archives of Valparaiso. ...

Women and the Far East in The 400 Million

During the Hanns Eisler Discourse at Humboldt University in Berlin on 5 and 6 November Japanese scholar Chiharu Wada (Meiji-Gakuin University, Tokyo) will lecture about Women and the Far East in the documentary The 400 Million (USA, 1939). Joris Ivens' documentary The 400 Million deliberately presents a "new" image of China, where women and men study together, "as in America". It is Ivens' perspective for a modern Chinese society in which women are equal to men, although this representation did not really matched reality in society i ...

Looking for my father in an Ivens film

Recently a citizen from Montpellier travelled 1200 kilometres to visit the Joris Ivens Archives in order to find his biological father. There are many reasons why people around the world consult the Ivens collection, but this is a very special and personal one. He wanted to look for his father, which he has never known and met, in Ivens’ documentary Peace Will Win (1951)

Ivens Meets China

After years of preparations and research, professor Zhang Tongdao (University of Beijing) and Dutch filmmaker René Seegers finalized their four-part television series about Joris Ivens. In each part of 50 minutes one of Ivens’s Chinese films is key: 1- The 400 Million (1938); 2- Before Spring (1958); 3- How Yukong Moved the Mountains (1976) and 4- A Tale of the Wind (1988).

Picasso Shared and Divided: The Artist and His Image in East and West Germany

In 1951 Joris Ivens met Pablo Picasso during a visit to his atelier in Vaucluses. Marion Michelle made a series of photos of them, together with poet Jacques Prévert, which are on display at the exhibition about 'Picasso: Shared and Divided' in Museum Ludwig, Cologne (25 September 2021-30 January 2022). After the Second World War Picasso was 'a hero of the left' and used in this way. His dove, symbol for world peace, became a tool for propaganda in the Eastern Bloc. What do we associate with Pablo Picasso today? A ...

Project of a Book on the History of FIAF

FIAF, in partnership with the Jan de Vaal Fund, invites film historians to submit proposals for thematic chapters as part of a forthcoming book on the 82-year history of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), both as an institution and as a coherent global community with its shared values, cultural missions, professional practices, scientific methods, and collaborative projects. The European Foundation Joris Ivens is an associate of FIAF since 2002 and André Stufkens is participating as co-editor of the book, together with Chris ...

Gamelan1

The famous Gamelan Digul, made in 1927 by the most intransigent critics of Netherlands East Indies (NEI) colonialism who were arrested and exiled to the notorious prison camp in Boven Digul, West Irian. One prisoner, an extremely talented musician, used found materials to build a complete gamelan orchestra in this “worst of all places of exile”. When the Japanese attacked in 1942 the NEI government moved to Australia with their Digul prisoners and the gamelan. Some played the gamelan for audiences in Melbourne, establishing very early personal links between the two countries, while working surreptitiously for the Indonesian revolution. When Indonesia’s Independence was declared in 1945, the prisoners returned home to struggle against the returning Dutch, leaving the gamelan in the Museum of Victoria, which gave it to MAMU in 1978. The Music Archive of Monash University (MAMU) has been collecting Indonesian musical instruments, theatrical puppets and masks, textiles, original field recordings, photographs, books and more since its foundation in 1975.

Anthony Liem is talking about the historical context of this instrument at a fundraising ralley at the Indonesian consulate on 12 October:

"The 1920s painted timber and iron gamelan Digul accompanied the Indonesian Political Prisoners from Tanah Merah and Tanah Tinggi in the Boven (Upper) Digul region near Merauke, Papua (New Guinea) to Cowra POW Camp in NSW, Australia in June 1943. The Indonesians were interned in the depths of the jungle in Papua by the Dutch East Indies Government since 1928. Their crime was their demand for an Independent Indonesia or Freedom/Merdeka. This prison was located in the depth of the jungle interior of Papua; therefore, any person attempting to escape would not survive because of deadly tropical diseases or the crocodile infested rivers.

Kamp

Boven Digul, view of the camp along the river Digul

These adverse circumstances di not prevent the creation of this Gamelan Digul, a Javanese gamelan orchestra, comprising of 19 instruments. This gamelan was made by Surakarta born musician and political activist Bapak Pontjopangrawit (1893-1965), one of the inmates in the Tanah Merah political prison camp. Pak Pontjopangrawit was an accomplished gamelan musician in the Kraton at Surakarta under Sunan Paku Buwana X. This gamelan was used to entertain the prison population in Boven Digul including the Indonesian future leaders, Mohammad Hatta and Sutan Sjahrir.

Hatta2 Hatta

Mohammad Hatta (Vice President in 1945) and Sutan Sjahrir (Prime Minister in 1945)

Although the gamelan was made from rudimentary materials available in the remote jungle prison camp such as wooden packing cases, milk tins, sardine cans and metal food containers, the Gamelan Digul is a finely crafted set of musical instruments. It is unique in that these primitive instruments produce the sound of a gamelan as heard in the Kraton Palace of Surakarta.

This gamelan was brought to Australia in June 1943 by the political prisoners, who were transferred from the hot and humid tropical jungle to freezing cold and remote Cowra Prison of War Camp in southeast Australia. They carried the gamelan as a symbol of their survival, defiant resistance to colonialism and being slaves of an alien European regime.

In 1943, New Guinea or Papua was in danger of being fully occupied by the Japanese Armed Forces. The Dutch East Indies Authorities decided to transfer their Indonesian political prisoners to Australia, to avoid the possibility of these political prisoners collaborating with the Japanese to create an Independent Indonesia. Some 500 prisoners including their families, women and young children were taken by Catalina planes from Boven Digul to Horn Island in the Torres Strait. Among the political prisoners was the Gamelan Digul. Then by ship to Mackay and Brisbane in Queensland. They were given some clothing and POW gear, before being transported by train to Sydney. The strange group of these ‘jungle aliens’ arrived on June 25, 1943, at Cowra railway station. Most were still wearing their tropical sarong and cotton shirts, shivering in the bitter cold winter weather of inland south Australia. During their six months stay, thirteen of them died of pneumonia and German measles, including four young children and a baby.

During their rail journey to Cowra, one of the prisoners managed to alert a Sydney rail employee, to the fact, that they were political prisoners of the Dutch. This railway employee took the note to his union. The Union together with Ms. Laura Gapp of the Australia Indonesia Association contacted the Australian Foreign Minister Herbert Evatt. The Australian Government, then realised that the Digulists were not prisoners of war, therefore forced the Dutch to release the Indonesian political prisoners, because their demand for a free country was not a crime under Australian Law. In fact, the transfer of these Dutch Political Prisoners to Australia, became a major blunder for the Dutch, because these Digulists persuaded the Australian Maritime unions and eventually the Australian Government to support their cause.

After their release from Cowra, these former Digulists worked together with the Australian Waterside Workers and others to support the Indonesian Independence in 1945. Other Digulists found employment with the NIGIS, the Dutch Information Office in Melbourne. Although living in a different country, Australia, the Digulists, did not lose their passion for an Independent Indonesia.

Afbeelding1

The Gamelan Digul in the 1946 film Indonesia Calling - one of the dansers is ex-Digulist Sardjono.

On August 17, 1945, the Indonesian Independence was proclaimed in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. This was the news the Digul activists were waiting for. They immediately went into action to support their country’s Independence Proclamation. The Australian Unions came to their support, giving the 1942 Atlantic Charter, providing a guarantee of independence for any country wishing to be independent, the reason for their support.

The Maritime Unions together with the Indonesian Seamen, their Chinese and Indian mates imposed a ban on Dutch ships in Australian Harbours. These ships were to take the KNIL Dutch Military back to recolonise Indonesia. Dutch film director Joris Ivens filmed this shipping ban in Sydney harbour. One of the dance scenes in the 1946 film Indonesia Calling, featured the Gamelan Digul. The gamelan was covered in white cloth and was used to accompany two Javanese dancers. One of the dancers was Sardjono, one of the leaders in the 1928 Independence movement. This was the only record of the gamelan in operation before some of the instruments were lost.

To comply with Australia’s then Immigration Policy, all Indonesians were returned to Indonesia soon after Independence was declared. The gamelan Digul was donated to the Museum of Victoria in 1946 and then came to Monash University in 1977.

The Gamelan Digul, brought to Australia by the Indonesian political prisoners, became a symbol of the Australian Support for the Indonesian Struggle for their Independence. Although the Gamelan was made using crude implements of wood and metal food containers, it kept alive the spirit of the political prisoners desiring freedom or Merdeka from the Dutch colonialism. Political prisoners, who were exiled and living in inhuman conditions in the depths of a Papuan Jungle with no chance of escape. These political prisoners with their Gamelan, symbolising their Spirit for a Free and Independent Indonesia was transferred to Australia. Realising that these Indonesians were freedom fighters, thousands of Australian workers and students became supporters of the Indonesians in their struggle. This was soon followed by the support from the Australian Government under Prime Minister Ben Chifley. Indonesia appointed Australia to be their representative in the negotiations for the recognition of its Independence. An Independent and Free Indonesia was eventually recognised by the Dutch in 1949.

The Gamelan Digul, and its Spirit for Independence, after a 20-year journey from the tropical jungle in Papua to Cowra, eventually found a safe haven at Monash University in Melbourne.

Poedijono playing a Bonang Gongchime form the Gamelan Digul and Margaret Kartomi playing a Javansese Gamelan equivalent. (Photo MAMU)

Professor Margaret Kartomi at Monash University organised the storage and care of the Gamelan Digul. She has written a book on the Gamelan Digul – The Gamelan Digul and the Prison Camp Musician, who built it – an Australian Link with the Indonesian Independence Revolution

Foodcontainers