Dr Ray Kerkhove is a Dutch-born historian, known for his contributions to reconstructing Aboriginal lifeways, biographies, site histories, and Frontier Wars especially concerning southern Queensland. He also sometimes writes on smaller and lesser-known faiths, For instance, he composed the first multi-faith history of an Australian region: Soul Havens (2003). Ray’s Read more…
Dr Nonja Peters is an historian, anthropologist, museum curator and social researcher whose expertise is transnational migration (forced and voluntary) and resettlement in Australia. She is the author of several books, museum exhibitions, journal articles, TV documentaries, and government reports. Her achievements and dedication towards raising awareness of the post-war Read more…
The Huygens Institute aims to make Dutch history and culture more inclusive. It also provides access to primary source material and text editions on which to base further analytical and interpretive research. In addition, the Huygens Institute takes the lead in developing innovative methods, tools and sustainable digital infrastructure. The Read more…
Theodora (Thea) Biesheuvel – was born in Schiedam, Netherlands in 1939 and emigrated to Australia in 1953. She grew up in country Australia. She has written poetry since she was 8 but started short story writing as an adjunct to telling stories.
“Old ties, new beginnings” presents the stories of twenty Dutch-Australian women who migrated along with thousands of Dutch and other post-war migrants to Australia during the 1950’s and 60’s. Very little is known about those Dutch women who settled in Australia. Their “homesickness”is sometimes mentioned and blamed for “unsuccessful” or Read more…
A new book has been published about the doomed fate of the VOC ship the Batavia in 1629. In this case the historical story forms the background to fiction through the eyes of 9 year old Dutch girl Mayken. Read the review of ”The Night Ship” by Jess Kidd as Read more…
The novel is about the experiences of Dutch immigrants in Australia from the 1950s to the ’80s. The themes in this novel include immigration, identity, indigenous issues, the White Australia policy, women’s friendships, marriage, and same sex relationships. This is the blurb of the book: In 1952 Anneke van Beek Read more…
Introduction to the publication (2011). ‘God made the world but the Dutch made Holland’ is an old saying referring to the way the Dutch shaped their nation by reclaiming land. It is with this same sense of determination that the Dutch applied themselves to the task of assimilating into the Read more…
Personal report from Paul Budde about his meeting with Ayaan Hirsi. Written in 2007 Her full name is Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She was born in Somalia, in Africa. This is a worn-torn country, which already for many decades doesn’t have a proper government, it doesn’t have a banking system nor Read more…
Early in Roger Bell’s book Unequal Allies,he states: ”Relations between the governments of Australia and the United States underwent fundamental changes during 1941-46…Indeed it was not characterized by general bilateral accord on political, defence and economic matters during war time.” These comments can be equally applied to the Dutch/Australian wartime Read more…