Indonesia-Netherlands Advances Digital Colonial Archive Research

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) and Dutch's International Institute of Social History (IISH) are pursuing joint research on colonial archives. Their collaboration uses platforms such as Globalise and Exploring Slave Trade in Asia (ESTA) to reconstruct slavery networks digitally.

As quoted from BRIN website on Thursday, August 20, 2026, the platforms help historians examine maritime routes and enslaved individuals. They combine scanned manuscripts with contextual analysis across extensive historical datasets.

Globalise provides digital infrastructure for VOC archival records and correspondence. ESTA records more than 15,300 voyages and hundreds of thousands enslaved individuals.

Leader of the Globalise project, Matthias van Rossum, said handwritten text recognition (HTR) helps historians in understanding the historical dynamics that is rarely found in traditional archives. This could include the fates of the enslaved children due to the VOC war in Java.

Meanwhile, Pascal Knings and Britt van Duijvenvoorde from IISH would dissect the ESTA database implementatio to reveal facts from voyage routes to the life experiences of the victims. They affirmed that integrated digital database is important to counter colonial biases.

To support it, Muhammad Nur Ichas Asis of BRIN's Research Center for Religious Heritage and Civilization added local perspective. Based on the historic data analysis, the slavery was not an economic phenomenon per se, but also part of a complex local maritime politics.

The head of BRIN's Archeology, Language, and Literature Research Center, Herry Yogaswara, said international and interdisciplinary collaboration remains crucial for historical research. This approach also broadens access to historical data for researchers worldwide.

"This is a very good beginning for us for building research cooperation both internally and externally with Indonesian National Archives (ANRI) and global research partners," Herry said.

BRIN plans broader partnerships through visiting researchers, professors, and postdoctoral programs. They also plan concrete joint research with IISH following seminar.