During the period of the Japanese occupation of Indonesia (1942-1945), the war of independence (1945-1949) and the first decades of the Republic of Indonesia, the situation of children in Protestant and Catholic children's homes was hazardous. Many of them tried to come to the Netherlands. Preliminary research for the NWO project Child Separation uncovered an unexpected amount of detailed, yet sensitive and personal material in Dutch archives. As general references to these collections and sources will be included in the web resource developed by the Child Separation research team, this will induce their intensified use. At present, the impact of such sensitive records on those who have a right to access these, is unclear. However, the need for providing responsible conditions for ‘emotional access’ is apparent.
In this project, impact partner Pelita, ARQ and the PI of the Child Separation team collaborate to assess the effects of such sensitive archival sources on members of the Indisch community. ARQ develops a pilot training which prepares archivists for attending to those who access sensitive records.