Indonesian Colonial Experience

December 2008. Scarsdale High School, grade 10; collaborating teachers: Lauren Tallevi, Tom Maguire, Gwen Johnson.

A number of Social Studies teachers in Scarsdale High School invited me to come to their 10th grade classes to share the Indonesian experience in colonization. This was in line with the theme of colonization that they were teaching in Fall semester. In particular, my lessons were built around the essential questions, which were:

1. What does it mean to colonize and to be colonized?

2. Why does colonization exist?

3. How do people accommodate and resist colonization?

The presentation started with a brief background on colonialism in Indonesia, and which is also the background of the colonialism in the world, which is the spice race. Indonesia is the home of the original spice islands that the Europeans were looking for in the 15th and 16th century. 

A brief discussion followed looking at how the Dutch colonized Indonesia, divided into the VOC era, and the Cultivation System. 

Finally students looked into how the Indonesians resisted the colonization, particularly during the nationalist movement in the early 20^th century. Two forms of text were used to enrich class discussion. 

The first one was a movie, Max Havelaar; and the second one was a newspaper article written in 1913 by an Indonesian freedom activist, Ki Hadjar Dewantara. Through this lesson, students were expected to find the similarities and differences between colonialism throughout the world. 

They were left with the question, whether colonialism is a history, or is still happening in today's world.