How can the histories, cultures, and worldviews of the indigenous communities of Sorowako be told through the archetypes of green nickel-containing products used in the Netherlands?

THE BITTERSWEET MEMORY OF THE PLANTATION
Yassine Ben Abdallah

How can I use Yassine’s project as a reference and inspiration for my graduation work.

+1 Using materials connected to the nickel industry to craft objects.
• This could be Soil from Sulawesi, nickel ore, nickel matte, slag, tailings, pallets, briquettes, powders.
• The material should carry a smell to fill the expo space.

+1 Materialization in the form of a product that shows:
• The historical oppressed perspective
• Materialization of reciprocity, resistance or hope.
• Creates a counter object for the nickel containing green transition products in the Netherlands.

+1 Use the installation to show context of the Netherlands where indigenous perspective is overlooked.

New form??

The battery is one of the core objects of the green transition. The materialization of the European solution for climate change. A non-reciprocal and unjust idea shaped by a western worldview. The batteries needed mostly for electric vehicles destroy the life's of many indigenous communities in Indonesia.

WHAT KIND OF NICKEL CONTAINING OBJECT COULD BE THE CARRIER FOR MY STORYTELLING?

Interior of the office of the Exide batteries service station of the NV formerly Ruhaak and Co. in Java (1920-1930)

This photo is taken of one of the locations of the company Ruhaak en Co, the company which my grandfather worked for 30 years later. We see a sort of charging station for batteries in Java, Indonesia 100 years ago. I don’t know what its for, but it almost feels like an anachronism if we take the current EV trend and nickel mining in account. Its interesting how this image connects batteries to my family.

Through the research I think that Ruhaak & Co was at their start in Indonesia focused on the import of car products like motor oil and car batteries. The Exide car batteries where just a small part of their car oriented business.

DESIGN DIRECTION 1

Groundbreaking reference

DESIGN DIRECTION 2

If the indigenous perspective is lost in the nickel-containing (soil of Sulawesi containing) products used in the Netherlands, I can contact them to implement the worldview of the Karonsi'e Dongi people in these 21st-century green products.

What can I and we (the viewer of the expo) learn from reciprocal thinking through the worldviews ofthe Karonsi'e Dongi people of Sorowako?

Yuliana at a hunger strike against Vale in Sulawesi. Karonsi’e Dongi plant gardens in a bid to survive on traditional land (now abandoned by Vale Inco).

Vale Demonstration 2007