The Netherlands East Indies at the Tropenmuseum

Book excerpt: In this volume the exhibition "Eastward Bound! Art, Culture and Colonialism" forms the background against which a variety of experts discuss the issue of the museums collection which, along with the history of the formation of the collection, forms a unique source of knowledge about the way in which the Dutch have handled issues surrounding colonialism and decolonization in the past centuries. A variety of objects, representative for the four phases in the colonial relations, from 1600, through the period of colonial expansion with Dutch administration, ethical politics and finally decolonization, are depicted.