Nonja Peters: Historian, anthropologist, museum curator and social researcher

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 migration experience from 1945 and preserving migrant’s cultural heritage, have earnt her wide acclaim. Nonja is passionate about her work and promoting the experiences of the peoples and groups she researches in a respectful manner, to give them a platform from which to tell their story – and be heard.

She is currently working on Mutual Heritage between Australia and the Netherlands, liaising with the Dutch Embassy in Canberra, and the Australian Embassy in The Hague.

This information is from Nonja’s biography at her induction into the WA Women’s Hall of Fame in 2022.

Her own personal story.

Nonja’s Archival Collection at the State Library of WA

Link to the collection at the State Library

De Leeuwin

In August 2022, Nonja revealed she had recently discovered the name of the skipper of the Leeuwin, which had been unknown until that time. 2022 marked 400 years since the Dutch ship Leeuwin mapped the southwest coast of Western Australia. Nonja has collaborated with the WA Museum many times and has been working on and off on the Leeuwin project since 2012. Recent technological advances have allowed for more accurate translations of historical documents, which she attributes to the success of her discovery.

Leeuwin was one of the first ships to chart parts of the south WA coastline in 1622. It inspired the naming of Cape Leeuwin, the Leeuwin Current and many more significant sites in WA.

Books

Nonja is author of several books, including Tyranny to Freedom and A Touch of Dutch. These two books can be downloaded below (both are reproduced with permission).

For the PDFs of individual chapters in A Touch of Dutch, click here.

Nonja also published The Christian Slaves of Depok. For more information on this book, click here.

Other publications

1. 2015: Peters, N., Marinova, D., van Faassen, M., Stasiuk, G. ‘Digital Preservation of Ethnic Cultural Heritage, in Zacher, L. (ed.) Info Society In–the –making: Promises, Challenges and Problems, IGI Global.
2. 2018: Migrating People, Migrating Data: Digital Approaches to Migrant Heritage, Arthur, Paul ; Ensor, Jason ; van Faassen, M ; Hoekstra, Rik ; Peters, Nonja in Journal of the Japanese Association for Digital Humanities, 2018, Vol.3 (1), p.98-113.
3. 2018: Migrating People, Migrating Data: Digital Approaches to Migrant Heritage, Journal of the Japanese Association for Digital Humanities 3(1).
4. 2018: Arthur, P, van Faassen, M, Hoekstra, FG, Povroznik, N, Hearn, L & Peters, N. Migration Experiences: Acknowledging the Past, and Sustaining the Present and Future. in M Ioannides & E Fink (eds), Information Systems and Applications, incl. Internet/Web, and HCI: 7th International Conference, EuroMed 2018, Nicosia, Cyprus, October 29 – November 3, 2018, Proceedings, Part II. Springer, Nicosia. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-48974-2
5. 2016: ‘Migration, Mobility and Connection: Towards a Sustainable Model for the Preservation of Immigrant Cultural Heritage’, Paul Arthur, Jason Ensor (Western Sydney University), Marijke van Faassen, Rik Hoekstra, Marjolein ‘t Hart (Huygens ING), Nonja Peters (Curtin University), Proceedings of the 6^th Conference of Japanese Digital Humanities: Digital Scholarship in History and the Humanities, University of Tokyo, September 14-16, 2016.
6. National Archives in the Hague October – November 2023 – February 2024. Australia the Netherlands Moving People Australia the Netherlands was funded bilaterally by Australian embassy in The Hague and the Dutch embassy in Canberra. It continues to travel to promote the digitisation of our emigration records in both countries, which we show via QR Codes.
7. 2016: Opening and closing/summing up speeches at the NIAS LORENZ International Workshop on Digital Humanities – Conceptualising a model for the Digital Preservation of Immigrants Cultural heritage, 22 and 26 August Leiden University – my initiative brought this project to fruition.
8. 2016 – 29 September: AEMI conference paper – Santiago de Compostela (Spain) reserving Immigrants Cultural heritage – Outcome of the NIAS Lorenz Workshop in Leiden. Developing a sustainable model in mutual cultural digital heritage: tools and cases.
9. 2015: Preserving Immigrants Cultural heritage, Digital Humanities Conference, University of Western Sydney, Australia.
10. 2014: The ‘Digital Turn, New Shared Space and Asian Family History’ in Panel Title: “Blurring borders. Effects of digitization and popularization of colonial archival legacy for shaping Asian heritage and history.” AAS-in-ASIA Conference Asia in Motion, Singapore University 17-19 July 20.
11. 2013: Centre European Studies, ANU ‘The Digitisation of Migrants’ Cultural Heritage, 6 December.
12. 2012: Acknowledging the past, sustaining the present and future: Preserving immigrant’s cultural heritage – digitally, European Centre Australia National University, 30 November, 2012
13. 2010: Preserving the Cultural Heritage of Australians of Immigrant Origins: Exploring Digital Accessibility AEMI Conference, Bilbao, Spain, September.
14. 2009: Dutch Australians at a Glance (DAAAG): Preserving cultural heritage – digitally, AEMI Conference, Auswanderer Haus, Bremerhaven, Germany, September.
15. 2009: Redeemer College, Ancaster Canada, Dutch Abroad at a Glance (daaag) preserving Dutch Cultural heritage overseas, May.

2013-2015: DUTCH AUSTRALIANS AT A GLANCE (www.daaag.org) organised for the research on 18 personal migration stories for the website: funded by ‘Your Community Heritage Grant’ Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities for $24,750.

2016-2017: Chief Investigator NIAS LORENZ WORKSHOP Leiden University 22-26 August 2016:

• Title of Research: Towards a Sustainable Model for the Digital Preservation of Immigrant Cultural Heritage’. NIAS Lorenz Workshop (Snellius), Leiden University the Netherlands: CIs: Prof. dr. Marjolein ‘t Hart, Head of History Department of Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands (H-ING), Amsterdam; professor in the History of State Formation in a Global Perspective at VU University Amsterdam; Prof. dr. Leo Lucassen, Research Director of the International Institute for Social History (IISH), Amsterdam and professor of Global Labour and Migration History at Leiden University; Dr. Nonja Peters, Director of History of Migration Experiences Centre at Curtin University, Western Australia; Prof. dr. Paul Arthur, Professor and Chair in Digital Humanities, Western Sydney University, Australia; and Mara de Groot, MA, Manager of the Centre for Global Heritage and Development at the Faculty of Archeology of Leiden University, in cooperation with Erasmus Rotterdam and Delft Universities. 
  
  The NIAS-Lorentz Program is a collaboration between NIAS (Netherlands Institute Advanced Studies) and Lorenz Centre (International Centre for Scientific Workshops); is supported by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science (KNAW) and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). Funded by NIAS LORENZ program for $10,000. It is an ongoing project that is now poised to attract large funds from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

See also:

Other personal stories.

Researchgate

Migration Experiences: Acknowledging the Past, and Sustaining the Present and Future