Clay Paays (left) and his older brother, Ray Paays, in Banda Naira, Maluku, Friday (28/4). The two brothers visited Banda to trace their family tree in Maluku.
A good friend is really important, but family is everything. Clay Paays, 55, a Dutch citizen of Indonesian descent, tells his experience in retracing the steps of his ancestors in Banda, Maluku.
Along with his brother Ray Paays, 60, Clay traveled thousands of kilometers around the globe from the Netherlands to Indonesia in search of their ancestors’ graves. Armed with a historical document from the Dutch government, Clay and Ray arrived in Jakarta on April 15, 2017. Then, they went to Ereveld Menteng Pulo, the cemetery housing around 4,300 Dutch citizens who died during the Independence War.
At the cemetery, they found a big sign that read “Verzamelgraf Koeningan”, meaning collective grave of Kuningan. On the sign were the names of 12 Dutch citizens who died on Oct. 15, 1945 in Kuningan, West Java. On the final line was KWA (Karel Willem Alexander) Paays, the brothers’ grandfather.
Karel was born in Banda on Jan. 21, 1885 to a mixed Dutch-Maluku couple. On Naira Islandin Banda, he worked at the post office before moving to Java as a taxman. From a black-and-white photograph that Clay carried, it was visibly obvious that Maluku blood flowed through the veins of Clay and Ray’s grandfather, who had dark skin. The Maluku physical traits were also evident in August Paays, their father, as well as their children, who appear to have dark skin and a shorter stature than most Europeans.
Maluku, mostly Banda, was memorable for Clay and Ray. They are certain this is where the Paays family’s ancestors lived.
As soon as they arrived on Naira Island, they were very excited. “Unbelievable. We are finally walking in the footsteps of our ancestors. Banda has always had a special place in our hearts,” Clay said.
There, the Paays brothers looked for traces of their great-grandfather, Albert Frederic Paays, who lived on Naira Island until 1906. But Clay and Ray have not found out where their great-grandfather was born or where he is buried. “Although we cannot find our great-grandfather’s grave, we are happy to be on the land of our ancestors,” Ray said.
Pluralistic islands
The centuries-long nutmeg trade made the Banda Islands a meeting point of different countries, ethnicities and tribes. The arrival of the Paays ancestors cannot be separated from the history of the Netherlands, which monopolized the worldwide nutmeg trade.
Before the Dutch colonial era, Banda was a metropolitan and pluralistic area. Rachel de Vries, a Dutch citizen, feels Banda to be her country. Rachel’s father is the second son of Herman de Vries, a perkenier, or the nutmeg plantation owner of Combir and Raning on Banda Besar Island.
De Vries’ family first arrived in Banda in 1840. In remembrance of her ancestors, Rachel has regularly visited Banda, in 1994, 2012 and 2014. In October this year, she plans to visit Banda again.
Banda people of Dutch descent can be found to the present day. Pongky van den Broeke, a nutmeg plantation owner in Banda Besar, is the 13thgeneration descendant of a perkenier from the Netherlands, Peter van den Broeke, who came to Banda in 1612.
“Since the third generation of Van den Broeke, there have been mixed marriages in our family. Our family is a mix of Dutch, Javanese and Arab bloodlines and native Bandanese,” said Pongky. In the past, after a nutmeg harvest, the Van den Broeke family would host a leather puppet show for seven days. “Once I saw two boxes of leather puppets and a gamelan set in a warehouse near the nutmeg fogging room,” he said.
La Aci, a resident of Run Island, Banda Islands, also has non-native blood. His grandfather La Oro came from Buton, Southeast Sulawesi, while his grandmother Zaenab was from Semarang, Central Java. They were transported by the Dutch colonial administration to Run Island to work at a nutmeg plantation.
Banda historian Usman Thalib at Ambon‘s Pattimura University said that before the colonial era, the Banda people had already established relations with people outside the island from Java, Melayu, China, India, Persia and Arabia. “The Banda people have been pluralist from long ago,” he said.
The Bandanese used to sail to other regions. When the Portuguese captured in Malacca in 1511, they found a Banda community in the area.
Long before Indonesian independence, Banda had been a mini Indonesia. In Banda, social integration was complete and pluralism had become part of its identity.
Pluralism in Banda faced a difficult challenge in 1999 when the riots in Ambon spread to Banda. The Banda people, who were ethnically, tribally and religiously very diverse, ultimately fell into conflict over these issues, as well as social class.
This dark event was a critical period for the Bandanese in learning how to preserve their plurality. The integration process on Banda, which took place over several centuries, is inseparable from the history of their main commodity, nutmeg, which remains a major commodity today.
