Choreographed Knowledges

This page contains a growing timeline developed with and for Julia Sarisetiati's research and work on, around, and with migrant workers from Indonesia–individually, collectively, collaboratively, cooperatively, and a mixture of it all. This timeline is developed with Ary 'Jimged' Sendy, Grace Samboh, Julia Sarisetiati, Rachel K. Surijata, Ruhaeni Intan, with contributions from JJ Rizal.

The timeline is written in bahasa Indonesia with English translation is by Akmalia Rizqita “Chita” and Japanese translation by Haruko Kumakura. Recent development of the timeline is commissioned by Kyongfa Che for the exhibition Choreographies of the everyday (Aug 23-Nov 24, 2025), celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Museum of the Contemporary Art Tokyo.

About the timeline

This timeline traces how education became a tool: To sort bodies, train workers, pacify unrest, domesticate desire. It’s about the shifting techniques of governance (be it colonial or of equals) that taught people what they were allowed to become. But it’s also about refusal—about the skills that leak out of textbooks, the rituals that resist syllabi, the know-how passed between hands. What appears as “policy” in one entry might reappear as exile in another.

The timeline carries weight—physically, textually, structurally. To read it, you might have to crouch, turn, walk sideways. That movement echoes the entries themselves: where bodies are bent by state agendas, where migrant workers rehearse for futures not entirely their own. This choreography of adaptation—of being made compatible—is one of the timeline’s deepest concerns. It invites you to notice not just what you learned, but how, and why, how much, and at what cost.

This timeline is unfinished—and never meant to be. It follows chronological time, yes. But you’re free to follow your own sequence. Start wherever you like. In order or out of it. Three entries might be enough to feel the pulse—how migration, schooling, and labor constellate through laws, loopholes, and loss. Some pieces will feel familiar. Others might press at memories you forgot were yours. Shall we?

1546, 1602–1800

From Ternate to Batavia: Between the cross, the sword, and the pen

In 1546, Francis Xavier arrived in Ternate, leading a Jesuit mission to establish seminaries as instruments for spreading the Catholic faith. The schools in Ternate and Solor were even considered more advanced than those in Goa, which at the time was the centre of Portuguese power in Asia. A century before the arrival of the Dutch, Portuguese merchants had already settled in eastern regions of nusantara, bringing missionaries who saw education as a crucial part of both their spiritual and political missions.

In 1596, the first Dutch fleet landed in Banten. Officially established in 1602, the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) took over the trade routes, inheriting—and modifying—the Portuguese approach. As the world’s first multinational corporation, with the authority to wage war, mint currency, and forge treaties, the VOC monopolised trade across Asia and supported Christian missionaries such as the Nederlands Zendelingen Genootschap (NZG). Christian schools were first established in Ambon and Banda, later expanding to Batavia, funded by the VOC instead of the Dutch government—true to their motto: Gold, Gospel, Glory.

Meanwhile, Islamic education had long been present throughout the nusantara archipelago, focusing on reading, writing, and arithmetic in Malay—the everyday language of trade. These layers of education laid the foundation for knowledge systems that would later evolve and intertwine within the history of education and labour in Indonesia.

1680

From the palace to villages: Traces of education without schools

In the Maluku palace, daughters of the kolano were nurtured through home teaching: reading, writing, wood carving, embroidery, spinning yarn, and weaving. All of it took place within the domestic realm—which also served as a space for inheriting cosmology, social status, and ancestral symbols. It was there that values and skills were passed down—without schoolbooks.

Meanwhile, in South Sulawesi, local communities preserved their histories through elders and traditional storytellers. Stories of their origins, rituals, and agricultural patterns were transmitted through tales and chants, from one generation to the next. Even the smallest villages carried historical traces and traditions, carefully safeguarded by elders—evidence that identity and knowledge did not rely on the state school system.

As noted by Barbara Watson and Leonard Andaya, systems of skill-based and ethical education existed long before formal schooling. Teaching took shape through palace tales and village rituals alike—embedded in the everyday lives of the community.

1769, 1798, & 1799

Educating in the name of ruling: Population, production, and the politics of education

In 1798, Thomas Robert Malthus warned that uncontrolled population growth would surpass the Earth’s capacity to provide food. His theory influenced population and education policies in many nations. In authoritarian regimes, it was used to justify strict birth control, while democratic nations used it to promote sex education, reproductive health services, and introduce planned parenthood. In both approaches, education was positioned as an instrument to stabilise the population and prevent poverty.

Globally, the Industrial Revolution and Green Revolution reinforced dependence on skilled labour. The invention of the steam engine (1769) and the use of fossil energy from the late 18th century spurred colonialism and the reorganisation of labour in the Dutch East Indies to serve the interests of plantations and mining. Malthus’ idea gained traction amidst the production boom and urban migration triggered by the Industrial Revolution, which drastically reshaped social structures. In the 20th century, the Green Revolution transformed agriculture in Indonesia: mechanisation, surplus rural labour, and migration to cities or abroad became widespread. Education, in this context, was not aimed at liberating the people but rather at moulding them to meet the demands of production and social stability .

Following the dissolution of the VOC (1799) and the establishment of direct colonial rule, the education that was managed by churches such as the NZG, was taken over by the colonial government. Instead of fostering intellectual development, schools were designed to produce low-skilled labourers. Education became part of a framework of social control and population management, a legacy that persists to this day.

Nevertheless, various forms of community-based education continued to grow outside of the nation’s control. Surau (small Islamic prayer houses and learning centres), pesantren (traditional Islamic boarding schools), and people’s reading houses preserved knowledge that are rooted in spiritual values, local languages, and communal solidarities. In Minangkabau, surau even evolved into centres of education reform from as early as the 19th century, long before the establishment of political schools. These routes show that education was not always top-down—it could also emerge from the ground up, as a response to social pressures and colonialism.

1783

Embedded knowledge: Skills and crafts before the existence of ‘education’

Children learned by helping their parents and neighbours. From an early age, they prepared stoves, spun drills, refilled weaving tools, and filtered ore—absorbing not only techniques, but embedded knowledge, familiarity with local materials, and ways of working together. This was not merely “domestic craft”; it was intergenerational technology intimately tied to trade, land, and ceremony.

In 1783, William Marsden published his observations on Sumatra—describing long-established traditions of learning and expertise that predated his arrival by centuries. His publication recorded, among other things: Ironworkers mined ore at Iron Mountain (near Lake Singkarak) and smelted it in Salimpuang. Local blacksmiths—such as swordmakers in Payakumbuh and agricultural toolmakers in Lima Kaum / Tanah Datar—met the needs of both their communities and the colonial market. While the steel industry in Sheffield was just beginning to develop, these communities had already established sophisticated metallurgical practices using local furnaces and highland ore.

Gold and silver filigree artisans, particularly around Padang, created intricate ornaments using simple tools. Their craft—comparable in refinement to 7th-century BCE Etruscan filigree or 17th-century Mughal goldwork—developed independently, often adopting Chinese bellows and coastal innovations, but never relying on European education.

Textile weaving, carried out by women in Malay-speaking communities, included complex patterned weaving and embroidery using silk and gold threads. Long before the Jacquard machine revolutionised textile production in Europe, Minangkabau women were producing richly patterned fabrics—laden with meaning, memory, and prestige—particularly in coastal settlements connected to interregional trade routes.

1808 & 1817-1819

The education system and access during the Daendels Era

Under the authority of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, King Louis Bonaparte appointed Herman Willem Daendels, a rising military officer, to serve as Governor-General in the Dutch East Indies. Daendels instructed local regents in Java to establish pribumi schools, although these efforts largely failed due to the implementation of forced labour systems that brought suffering to the people. He also founded a ronggeng dance school in Cirebon and a midwifery school in Batavia, prompted by the high infant mortality rates resulting from inadequate healthcare facilities. Although he ruled the Dutch East Indies for only three years (1808–1811), Daendels left a legacy of militaristic leadership that can still be traced in both the state administrative system and the educational system in Indonesia today.

Following his departure, control of the Dutch East Indies was transferred to the British until 1816. Despite being led by Thomas Stamford Raffles, a statesman with a deep love for knowledge, best known for his History of Java—the education system saw little development under British rule. It was only later, under the leadership of the new Governor-General, Van der Cappellen, that new regulations were introduced, marking a significant shift in the development of education in the Dutch East Indies. Among these was the enactment of the 1818 Statute, which declared that the Dutch East Indies government was responsible for regulating the education system for pribumi children, although it bore no obligation to provide the schools itself—this responsibility was transferred to other parties. While this statute ultimately deepened the gap in educational access between Europeans and the pribumi population, it nonetheless marked the beginning of a transformation from traditional to colonial educational systems in the Dutch East Indies.

1826, 1845, & 1847

Towards the Ethical Policy: Race-based education

The growth of People’s Schools gradually increased the demand for teachers. This was further supported by King Willem II’s decree, issued on 30 September 1848, Number 95, which authorised Governor-General Van den Bosch to allocate ƒ25,000 per year to build native schools on the Island of Java. As a result, in 1852, the first teacher training school was founded in Surakarta. Its students were drawn from Javanese noble class, while the teachers had undergone training known as the Normaal Cursus, an educational programme at the time specifically designed to produce rural educators.

During this period, although a small number of selected natives gained access to education, there was a clear tendency to segregate education based on racial and social class distinctions. Europeans in the Dutch East Indies, Chinese, local aristocrats, and common natives, each received different forms of education. Such a tendency was evident in the establishment of Sekolah Bangsawan/The Nobles’ School (Hoofdensschool) in Minahasa in 1865, which was exclusively reserved for children of local regents. These children were trained to become the officials of Pangreh Praja (the colonial bureaucracy staffed by natives), and the school offered a more advanced curriculum than other native schools, with Dutch as the primary language of instruction.

In general, the education system during this period possessed dualistic and discriminatory characteristics, separating schools for Europeans, pribumi, and the Chinese. This discriminatory division affected various aspects of education, from the curriculum to the language of instruction—whether Dutch or local languages. Low-level schools for ordinary natives focused solely on basic reading, writing, and arithmetic. In contrast, schools for European children, Chinese descendants, and the nobility included more subjects such as geography, natural sciences, drawing, and history.

1830-1870

Forced cultivation: A system that impoverished farmers

The Forced Cultivation System (Cultuurstelsel), imposed by the Dutch colonial government from 1830 onwards, introduced the concept of linear time and production targets, which were previously unknown in local work cultures that were more flexible and cyclical. Under this system, farmers were required to cultivate a portion of their land—about one-fifth—with export crops designated by the colonial authorities, such as sugarcane, coffee, indigo, and tobacco. Farmers had no freedom to choose crops that suited their livelihood needs or local soil conditions. All decisions regarding crop types, land allocation, and production targets were dictated by the colonial government to meet European market demands.

As a result of this policy, farmers lost control over their own land. The time and energy they once devoted to growing food for their families were now spent serving colonial interests. Failure to meet the imposed obligations could result in penalties such as fines, additional forced labour, or other forms of coercion. In many cases, implementation was accompanied by violence, deception, and corruption by both local and colonial officials.

Many farmers fell into poverty as they could no longer sustain their livelihoods from their own harvests. In some regions, famine occurred because land had been diverted to export crops, while food production dropped sharply. On the other hand, this exploitative system generated enormous revenue for the Dutch treasury.

1848, 1852, 1865, & 1892

Towards the Ethical Policy: Race-based education

The growth of People’s Schools gradually increased the demand for teachers. This was further supported by King Willem II’s decree, issued on 30 September 1848, Number 95, which authorised Governor-General Van den Bosch to allocate ƒ25,000 per year to build native schools on the Island of Java. As a result, in 1852, the first teacher training school was founded in Surakarta. Its students were drawn from Javanese noble class, while the teachers had undergone training known as the Normaal Cursus, an educational programme at the time specifically designed to produce rural educators.

During this period, although a small number of selected natives gained access to education, there was a clear tendency to segregate education based on racial and social class distinctions. Europeans in the Dutch East Indies, Chinese, local aristocrats, and common natives, each received different forms of education. Such a tendency was evident in the establishment of Sekolah Bangsawan/The Nobles’ School (Hoofdensschool) in Minahasa in 1865, which was exclusively reserved for children of local regents. These children were trained to become the officials of Pangreh Praja (the colonial bureaucracy staffed by natives), and the school offered a more advanced curriculum than other native schools, with Dutch as the primary language of instruction.

In general, the education system during this period possessed dualistic and discriminatory characteristics, separating schools for Europeans, natives, and the Chinese. This discriminatory division affected various aspects of education, from the curriculum to the language of instruction—whether Dutch or local languages. Low-level schools for ordinary natives focused solely on basic reading, writing, and arithmetic. In contrast, schools for European children, Chinese descendants, and the nobility included more subjects such as geography, natural sciences, drawing, and history.

1881, 1904, & 1911

Towards the ethical politics: The birth of vocational education

To support the smooth running of colonial bureaucracy, the Dutch East Indies government began establishing vocational schools that offered specialised skills to their students. The graduates were then stationed in European trading companies, plantations, and some became government officials. Vocational schools established in Java between 1881 and 1911 included: Craftsmanship School (Ambachts Leergang) which produced skilled labourers in carpentry, metalwork, electricity, automotive, and construction; Senior High Carpentry School (Ambachtsschool), which produced skilled labourers in the same field but trained to become foremen; Technical School (Technish Onderwijs), the next level after the Ambachtsschool, designed to produce skilled supervisors working under engineers; Trade Education School (Handels Onderwijs) established to meet the needs of European trading companies in the Dutch East Indies that was growing rapidly; Agricultural Education School (Landbouw Onderwijs), Agricultural School (Cultuurschool) and Senior High Agricultural School (Middelbare Landbouwschool) which trained skilled labourers for European plantations; and Women’s Vocational School (Meisjes Vakonderuijs) pioneered by Kartini and Dewi Sartika.

1890–1939

The beginning of overseas labour dispatch: Javanese diaspora in Suriname

Towards the end of the 19th century, the colonial government sent thousands of people from Java to the Dutch West Indies, or now known as Suriname, to be employed as contract labourers. Between 1890 and 1939, as many as 31,499 individuals were recorded to have been transported in waves to what was then called The Dutch Guiana. Most of the Javanese sent to the region worked as plantation labourers, as they had no other skills beyond their physical labour. When Indonesia declared its independence in 1945, the first generation of the Javanese diaspora in Suriname was promised repatriation. However, only about 8,000 people managed to return. The rest remained and later contributed to the founding of the Republic of Suriname, which only gained their independence in 1975. This deployment of contract labourers to the Dutch Guiana marked one of the earliest practices of sending labourers abroad from the Dutch East Indies. The aim was to address a labour shortage on the plantations, which had persisted since slavery was officially abolished on 1 July 1863. The resulting labour crisis left many plantations neglected, severely impacting the economy of Dutch Guiana—or the West Indies at large—which relied heavily on agricultural production.

1893-1896

Knowledge and learning from the Highlands

In the highlands of Enrekang and Tana Toraja, the construction of tongkonan traditional houses is rooted in cosmological spatial principles and joinery techniques using wood without nails. Building a house is not merely a matter of construction, but an architectural practice passed down through communal labour, customary rituals, and the guidance of elders.

In the Bugis lowlands, the making of pinisi boats, stilt houses, wet-rice farming systems, and folk astronomy, which determines planting and sailing seasons, are embedded in everyday life. Children learn by accompanying their parents to the rice fields and shipyards—memorising the sky, following the seasons, absorbing local wisdom without books or blackboards.

Bugis and Makassar women weave sarung and baju bodo garments using hand-spun thread, following ancestral patterns embedded with family symbols, caste markers, and cosmological meaning. These patterns and techniques are taught from mother to daughter, from hand to hand, in domestic spaces that are also spaces of creation and instruction.

The cousins of explorers Paul and Fritz Sarasin encountered these practices during their journey in 1893–96—long before European-style education reached the remote areas of Sulawesi. In Indigenous communities, skills, values, and knowledge are passed down in a single breath—not from curricula, but from life itself.

1899, 1907, & 1908

Schools, awareness, and the legacy of educated pribumi

J.B. van Heutsz, the Governor-General cloaked in modernity, transformed Ethical Politics into a mass project of literacy—Sekolah Desa/Village School (1901), Schakel School (1903), and textbooks that taught arithmetic while instilling gratitude for being obedient child of the colony. “The people must be taught to read and write, so that their minds may develop. Only through education can we bring the progress required for civilisation,” he declared at Banteng Park (1907).

These schools were not established for liberation, but to enable a more systematic colonisation. From behind the writing desk, an irony was born: when the people learned to read, they began to read the world. Abdul Rivai, a Javanese doctor from STOVIA, practiced resilience with his pen. In Europe, he published Indonesian Students in Europe (1904) which exposed the false promises of colonial education: Restricted “progress”, and tightly controlled mobility. He was not alone. In 1908, ‘Perhimpunan Hindia’ (Indies Association), in the Netherlands and ‘Budi Utomo’ in Jakarta corresponded in shared concerns. Both organisations were born from the same womb—colonial schools—but took different paths. Budi Utomo championed the courtesy of elite priyayi, producing teachers and bureaucrats who became the backbone of colonial administration. Perhimpunan Hindia was more radical, forging networks with socialist and anti-imperialists activists. Both left a long-lasting legacy: from the war technocrats of the Japanese occupation, to the development bureaucrats of the New Order. Schools remained a pathway of mobility, but they also became sites for producing obedience.

To this day, those traces persist. Education is still framed as a personalinvestment, rather than a tool for liberation. From those historical ruins, Abdul Rivai reminds us: “Education is not the Dutch’s mirror, but our own reflection.” And from that reflection, we learn to ask: who writes the question, and who decides the answer?

1901

The birth of the Ethical Policy: The beginnings of the nationalist movement initiated by the educated class

The history of Indonesia’s nationalist movement began when the colonial government introduced the idea of the Ethical Policy or Politics of Gratitude (Politik Balas Budi) in the early 20th century. This idea was first proclaimed by Queen Wilhelmina during her inauguration on 17 September 1901, in which she declared that the Dutch East Indies government owed a moral debt to the pribumi population due to the suffering inflicted by the cultivation system (cultuurstelsel) imposed since 1830 under Governor-General Johannes van den Bosch.

The Ethical Policy was built on three main pillars, commonly referred to as the Trias Politica: an irrigation programme aimed at improving water systems to support agriculture; an emigration programme intended to reduce population density on the island of Java by relocating people to other regions; and an education programme designed to broaden access to schooling for the pribumi.

Its implementation was not free of corruption. However, the policy succeeded in giving rise to a class of educated pribumi elites who played a leading role in the nationalist movement and helped cultivate a sense of national consciousness that would later fuel the struggle for independence of Indonesia.

During this period, Dutch schools, previously reserved for European children, began to admit pribumi students, albeit prevailing racism and discrimination. A tiered education system, from primary to advanced schooling, became known and accessible to pribumi students.

It began with the Hollandsch-Inlandsche School (HIS) or Europeesche Lagere School (ELS)—seven-year primary schools that followed the same curriculum and teaching methods as those in the Netherlands. Graduates of HIS or ELS could continue to Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs (MULO) or Hogere Burger School (HBS), the first advanced secondary schools open to pribumi. Upon completing MULO, students could then pursue studies at the School tot Opleiding van Inlandsche Artsen (STOVIA); a seven-year medical school, or Algemeen Metddelbare School (AMS); a higher secondary institution.

1901

Schools, faith, and control

Since the implementation of Ethical Politics, education for pribumi was expanded. This development was seized upon by the Zending Gereformeerd to preach the Bible through educational institutions. The birth of this organisation in the Dutch East Indies was closely connected with the colonial government’s long-standing ambition to establish more western-style schools for the natives. To support this, Zending schools were granted easy licensing and even subsidised by the colonial government, as these schools were seen as aligned with the mission of the Ethical Politics: to advance the civilisation of the natives. In these schools, loyalty to the colonial government and to the Queen of the Netherlands were deliberately instillied in their students’ hearts. Such doctrines were strongly emphasised as the zendeling believed that the people in Indonesia still required—and would continue to require—their guidance for a long time to come. Consequently, when the national awakening eventually emerged, many of the zendeling regarded the movement as a revolutionary threat that ought to be rejected. This pattern—faith-based education intertwined with political control—would later resurface in other forms during the New Order, etc.

1908, 1912, & 1920

Waves of awareness and community emancipation

In addition to the state schools established by the Dutch East Indies government, increasing numbers of privately founded schools began to emerge. For students of Chinese descent, primary education was available at the Hollandsch-Chineesche School (HCS), which offered a curriculum equivalent to that of the Europeesche Lagere School (ELS).

Before the establishment of HCS in 1908, Chinese children typically received informal education at home, often through private tutors brought in from either the Netherlands or China. The rise of Chinese nationalism around 1900 also sparked an emancipation movement. The first Chinese emancipation association, Tiong Hoa Hwee Koan, was founded in Jakarta, 1900, with the aim of improving education within the Chinese community.

This wave of emancipation gained momentum following Japan's victory over Russia in 1905 and the Chinese Revolution in 1911. The Chinese-Indonesian community began to demand equal rights and status with Europeans, perceived as threatening by the Dutch colonial authorities. In response, the government devised a number of strategies to suppress this growing nationalist sentiment, including the provision of Dutch-Chinese schools throughout the colony.

Other than HCS, private education was also pursued by Islamic reformist groups, such as Muhammadiyah. This movement began when K.H. Ahmad Dahlan, a reform-minded kyai, founded a school in Kauman, Yogyakarta in 1908. In addition to religious studies, the school was considered modern for its time, using desks and blackboards, and offering lessons in Malay language, arithmetic, geography, biology, and literacy in Latin script.

1913, 1920, & 1924

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1922-1941

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1932 & 1933

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1939–1942

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1942

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1942–1943

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1943

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1943 & 1945

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1945

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1945

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1945-1966

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1945–1947, 1950, & 1956–1957

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1947 & 1952

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1948 & 1955

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1949, 1952, 1954, & 1958

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1950, 1951. & 1954–1957

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1961

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1965

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1965-1966

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1966

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1967

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1967

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1968 & 1970

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1970

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1973

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1973

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1974

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1974, 1980, 1984 & 1993

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1975–1976

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1980s

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1984

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1994

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1997

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1998

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1999

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2002, 2004, 2006, & 2011

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2003

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2003

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2005

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2005–2006

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2007–2008

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2008

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2010 & 2014

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2011–2012

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2011, 2015, 2017, & 2018

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2015 - now

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