In 1621, Dutch military forces, led by Admiral Jan Pieterz. Coen, invaded and conquered the Banda Islands. Their goal was to gain total control of the production and trade of nutmeg and mace for the Dutch East India Company. Over the course of several weeks, the Dutch, aided by Japanese mercenaries, blockaded the coast and killed or captured the vast majority of the inhabitants of Banda--over 90% by some estimates. Many were killed or enslaved and shipped to other Dutch-controlled areas of the Indies. The islands were then repopulated by Dutch "perkeniers" and slaves from other parts of Asia.
Some Bandanese, however, managed to escape in boats, often under the cover of darkness in heavy seas. Those who survived (many didn't) migrated to neighboring islands, using their extensive knowledge of trade networks, and set up new communities. Some of these communities maintain their Bandanese identity to this day, while on Banda itself, people generally identify themselves as descendants of immigrants.
In May 1998 I embarked on a voyage to explore some of these refugee villages, in order to better understand the resonance of the massacre in people's lives today. I also hoped that some kind of historical knowledge of pre-colonial Banda would have survived the 350 years since then. The most well known of these communities are the villages of Banda Ely and Banda Elat on the island of Kei Besar, southeast of Banda, where people still speak a modified version of the Bandanese language, now extinct on Banda itself. I chose to explore the less well-known villages scattered along the coast of eastern Seram.
My transportation of choice was a type of traditional sailing vessel known as a perahu lambo. These are 30-50 foot long wooden sloops, originating from the island of Buton off of Southern Sulawesi. There are many Butonese immigrants in Banda now, and they continue to build this kind of boat, which are called perahu bot in Banda. I was joined by my wife Charlotte Spang our adventurous friends Andy Lawless and Kathy Batt on the Orang Datang, a perhau bot from the village of Biauw on Banda Besar island. The boat was crewed by three, and our captain was Pak La Ade, a Banda-born Butonese sailor in his late 60's who manned the tiller for 18 hour stretches while singing and smoking kretek cigarettes.
Our boat and crew were (luckily) well chosen, as they regularly engaged in coastal trading in eastern Seram and the islands off its southeastern tip, following the same trade networks that have been in place since pre-colonial days, trading manufactured goods for forest products like lumber, atap roof thatch and sago, a palm starch staple food that can't be grown in Banda, and is thus in great demand there. Pak La Ade is a well known figure in the small sago growing villages in eastern Seram--often he is the only contact these villages have with the world of plastic buckets, laundry detergent and kretek cigarettes, and his boat's arrival in the lagoon is welcomed.
Over the course of 7 days, we visited three villages that had some kind of mythological connection to Banda. All were fascinating. The village of Rumadan seemed to have the strongest tradition of Banda heritage; we spent two incredible days meeting and talking to people about their history, and the many sacred sites that serve as a physical reminder of their origins. The name of the village is said to be from Rumah Andan (houses of Andan), Andan being the ancient name of Banda (Andan or Wandan appears in textual sources from the Majapahit kingdom in central Java 10 - 16th centuries). We also watched sago processing, which has hardly changed since A.R. Wallace observed it in the 19th century.
I am currently writing a full length article about the historical and mythological information I collected on this voyage, and would welcome contact with anyone else who has traveled in this region
