Current Project

MAJU TERUS!
Failure and Success of the Moluccan Minority in The Netherlands

NEPAC has created a full-length documentary film on the future of the children and youth of the Moluccan exile community in The Netherlands, in both a Dutch and English version. Although Moluccans have been living in The Netherlands for 60 years, they have kept a distinct ethnic identity, strong social and emotional ties with their home islands in Eastern Indonesia, and they were long resisting integration into Dutch society. Over the years, they acquired a reputation of being prone to violence and dependent on welfare. Particularly, Moluccan youths are seen as marginal in Dutch society, having a high school dropout rate, widespread drug addiction, gang-membership, low work ethic, and large unemployment.

Taking a historical perspective, the documentary deals with the issues that may be responsible for the endemic difficulties Moluccans, as a group, appear to have in adjusting to life in Dutch society. By focusing on children and youth, traditional conceptions of integration will be challenged and predictions about the future of Moluccans in the Netherlands will be offered.

Most important of all, the documentary pays homage to and celebrates the legacy of the First Generation of which only very few are alive as the 60th Anniversary of their arrival in The Netherlands nears.

The film has its gala premiere at the Moluks Museum (MUMA) in Utrecht in March 2011 as part of the festivities surrounding the 60th Year Anniversary of the Arrival of Moluccans in The Netherlands.