Dutch Burghers Archives

Sri Lankan artefacts in the Dutch Australian Heritage Centre Image Source : victoriancollections We at eLanka would like to forward the following invitation from the Dutch Australian Heritage Centre to Sri Lankans, in particular Dutch Burghers, residing in Victoria. The DAHC (Dutch Australian Heritage Centre), situated at 60 Rosstown Road, Carnegie, contains a display of various artefacts related to Dutch migration. Given the Netherlands’ connection with Sri Lanka and especially its ‘Dutch Burghers’ through Dutch colonisation and VOC involvement, the DAHC is interested in adding similar items related to Sri Lanka to its collection. These could include ornaments, furnishings, books, photographs, etc that are no longer required by their current owners but are worth preserving for future generations. If you are able to contribute, please contact Michael Gysberts on 0419 549 376 or by email to houdoe@outlook.com.au In the meantime, you are invited to visit https://victoriancollections.net.au (Dutch Australian Heritage Centre Victoria) for more information about the DAHC. ...

Dutch Burghers and Portuguese Mechanics: Eurasian Ethnicity in Sri Lanka By Thuppahi. Source:thuppahis.com Dennis B. McGilvray, reproducing an essay presented in April 1982 within Comparative Studies in Society and History 24 (2): 235-263 –– an article that is wide-ranging and draws on ethnographic work as well as historical manuscripts. Note that the highlighting and pictorial insertions are the work of The Editor, Thuppahi. I: PROLOGUE Historians and anthropologists in Sri Lanka have tended to migrate in opposite directions, but away from the multiethnic confusion of the port cities. Typically, the heterogeneous, semi-Westernized, postcolonial urban society of Colombo and the larger towns has been only a transit point on intellectual journeys outbound to European archives or inbound to “traditional culture.” This was certainly my viewpoint as I arrived “inbound” in Sri Lanka for my first anthropological fieldwork. I took only passing notice of the clerks of mixed European and Sri Lankan descent who sold me ...