Maluku Leerdam 25th of April 2020

On April 25th, it's RMS Day (Republic of the South Moluccas). Moluccans annually commemorate the proclamation of the RMS. On April 25th, 1950, the RMS was proclaimed in Ambon. The RMS aims for independence from the Republic of the South Moluccas. I had the privilege of working on the post-production of this film.

Moluccans are the Austronesian-speaking and Papuan-speaking ethnic groups indigenous to the Maluku Islands (also called the Moluccas), Eastern Indonesia. The region was historically known as the Spice Islands,[3] and today consists of two Indonesian provinces of Maluku and North Maluku. As such, "Moluccans" is used as a blanket term for the various ethnic and linguistic groups native to the islands.

Islam and Christianity are major religions of most Moluccans. Despite religious differences, all groups share strong cultural bonds and a sense of common identity, such as through Adat.[4] Music is also a binding factor, playing an important role in the cultural identity, and the Moluccan capital city of Ambon was awarded the official status of City of Music by UNESCO in 2019.[5]

A small population of Moluccans (~50.000+[6]) live in the Netherlands. This group mainly consists of the descendants of soldiers in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL), who were originally brought to the Netherlands temporarily, and would have been sent back to their own independent republic, had the Dutch government not given up control of Indonesia. They and others in the world make up the Moluccan diaspora. The remainder consists of Moluccans serving in the Dutch navy and their descendants, as well as some who came to the Netherlands from western New Guinea after it too was handed over to Indonesia.[6] However, the vast majority of Moluccans still live in the Moluccas and the other surrounding regions, such as Papua, East and West Timor, North Sulawesi and further west.