AEMI

‘Migration and the Indian Ocean Rim
(IOR) since 1450: the Impact of
In-migration in Sustaining the European
Economy and Generating Cultural
Heritage in Both Regions’
Nonja Peters
Introduction
On 21 May 2014, the Council of the European
Union adopted ‘Conclusions on
cultural heritage as a strategic resource
for a sustainable Europe’. At the EU
meeting in Brussels, that day, a historic
policy approach to cultural heritage was
adopted - tangible, intangible or digital
- recognising it as a unique and non-renewable
resource and a major asset for
Europe and for the entire European
project (in which I include Britain). The
‘Conclusions’ also emphasized the important
role that cultural heritage plays
in creating and enhancing social capital.
On a conference tour of Europe in
2012, that included visits to two iconic
collection institutions – the British Museum
(London), and the Rijksmuseum
in Amsterdam and Rijksmuseum van
Oudenheden (RvO) in Leiden, what
impacted on me was that the volume
of artifacts on display were almost exclusively
‘acquired’ from outside Europe
predominantly from Rome, Greece, the
Middle East and Indian Ocean Region
(IOR). 1 Most of the artifacts were acquired
by maritime explorers during the
‘Age of Exploration’ from the late 1400s
to mid 1800s, from nations and states
the British and Dutch had conquered.
The colonialism and imperialism that
resulted from these East India Company’s
incursion into the IOR were in
force until the mid twentieth century.
Although the curatorial focus of these
two museums is the history of humans
and culture, it could be argued given
their collections and displays, that they
in fact commemorate colonialism and
imperialism. 2 Yet these two cultural institutions
along with the many other
museums in both countries are considered
icons of cultural heritage. Viewed
from a heritage tourism perspective they
make major contributions to the revenue
of their respective countries. For
example, in 2014 the British Museum
(established in London 1753) recorded
its annual attendance at 6.8 million visitors.
3 Visitation at (all) Dutch museums
is around 20 million per annum. This
noteworthy level of visitation also confirms
the high level of social capital they
generate.