Papers

• Charles Hose’s Borneo: A Pioneer photographer in Sarawak (circa mid-1890s to 1920) Antonio Guerreiro IRASIA CNRS AIX-Marseille University

  After introducing the topic of early photography in Borneo (19th c./early 20th c.), I will concentrate on the life, administrative and scientific activities of Charles Hose in Sarawak (now part of East Malaysia). The paper will be centered on the different uses of photography and more generally, the illustration of ethnographic books, after Charles Hose’s main publications, including the captions. It is one of the most important corpus of images on Borneo made at the time, roughly between the mid-1890s and 1920, more than 350 glass plates. The relations between photography and ethnographic collecting by Hose will be stressed. The paper will address as well the historical context, the colonial gaze and the ‘ethnic classification scheme’ proposed by Hose in the reference work, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo (1912). Conversely, I’m considering scientific expeditions organized in the Baram area of central Borneo in the 1890s, which took place with Hose’s active participation.

• Combining historical, ethnographic and morphological approaches to reconstruct Dutch military tours in the Interior of Borneo: the uses of photography Nicolas Césard CNRS/MNHN/Univ. de Paris

  The Apo Kayan region is an isoled mountainous plateau at the headwaters of the Kayan River in the interior of Indonesian Borneo. The area is remote and difficult of access because of the tropical forest, rugged terrain and dangerous rapids. During the Dutch colonial period, the interior of East Kalimantan and North Kalimantan was part of the residency of South and East Borneo, or Zuider- en Oosterafdeling van Borneo. It was only at the beginning of the 20th century that the Dutch organized major scientific expeditions to the upper Mahakam and Apo Kayan region (A.W. Nieuwenhuis in 1900). Exploratory surveys were undertaken subsequently by military personnel. The first contingent of Dutch officers was posted in Apo Kayan in 1911. The Apo Kayan area was declared a sub-district, or onderafdeling, in 1925 and remained under Dutch rule until 1942 (Eghenter 2001, Lumenta 2008).
  Following the purchase in 2013 from an auction site of an album of 70 photographs numbered and described showing officers of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) and their aides patrolling in the region in the years 1926-1930, a long work of identification has begun to put the pieces together. It involves identifying the main persons depicted (soldiers, Dayaks and Punan people, the author/photographer), the chronology of events (various journeys) and the sites and villages visited by cross-referencing available visual and written information (archives and publications) but also with the help of facial recognition software. Beyond its ethnographic and historical interest (still incomplete), the presentation will question the circulation of images of Borneo during the colonial period, several photographs present in the album having been printed as postcards, casting doubt on the originality of the document and its origin.

• Early Photography in North Borneo: A Visual Narrative (1900–1930) Rosalie Corpuz Symbiosis Consulting

  Photographic pursuits in North Borneo (Sabah, Malaysia) started in earnest in the early 1880s under the administration of the British North Borneo Chartered Company. Under royal charter, the Company operated a policy to expedite development through scientific and commercial exploration, investment and migration to the territory, the last bastion of terra intacta on the island of Borneo. This brought about a flurry of settlers and visitors that engendered a unique visual chronicle of the emergence of a nation. The gaze of these spectators of mankind would take on several overlapping guises of company administrators, ethnographers, anthropologists, collectors, missionaries, migrant workers, postcard publishers, photographers and filmmakers. Taking into account both prints and postcards from six collections; GC Woolley, Basel Missionaries Archives, Philippe Funk & Sons, Albert Grubauer, Martin & Osa Johnson, and the Domingo family, this paper will focus on the portrayal of early imagery that encompasses the diverse perspectives of these observers of progress and humanity in North Borneo between 1900 to 1930.

• Images of Dayak in Dutch Borneo: Jean Demmeni, Borneo, and New Guinea expeditions Bernard Sellato CNRS

  In the vibrant setting of photographic activity around the turn of the twentieth century, Jean Demmeni, a part-French and part-Indonesian surveyor with a interest in photography, became one of the prominent documentarists of the Dutch East Indies. He traveled to record life in various parts of the archipelago, but his career’s highlight was his involvement in major expeditions across Borneo, especially those led in 1896-1900 by A.W. Nieuwenhuis, a famed Borneo explorer. The combination of Nieuwenhuis’ ethnographic interest, medical concern, and human empathy and Demmeni’s technical skills, artistic perception, and sensitivity to traditional peoples generated the most exciting photographic corpus ever completed on Borneo’s peoples and cultures, on a par with the expedition’s extensive ethnographic and natural history collections. While Nieuwenhuis’ publications contributed to position the island on the cultured Dutchman’s mental map, Demmeni’s photographs, used as educational material in schools, ensured the East Indies’ and Borneo’s reality in the wider Dutch society. Moreover, Nieuwenhuis’ satisfaction with his Dayak field crews soon convinced other explorers to seek their jungle and river expertise and disciplined team spirit, making them choice crews for highly mediatized expeditions to New Guinea’ snowy central mountains during four decades, which spread to the Western public a revamped view of wild Borneo and her hitherto bloodthirsty headhunters.

Abstract