Children as protagonists in colonial history: Watching missionary photography

Abstract

Although researchers have been pointing to the central position of children in colonial 'civilising' projects for years, colonised children remain a historical population that is notably hard to research. This article engages colonised children as central historical actors, by using a collection of missionary photographs taken in Dutch New Guinea (present-day West Papua) between 1905-1925 to study Marind children's lived experiences and changing positions in a society increasingly dictated by Dutch colonial governance. By applying Ariella Azoulay's method of 'watching' photography, in other words by examining the temporal and spatial dimensions in which the participants in the event of photography moved and interacted, this article aims to approach photographed children as protagonists in colonial history. This approach offers contrasting perspectives to the dominant missionary discourse in the textual archive in which children constitute a marginal and passive presence. Photographs not only have the power to make children visible and transform faceless masses into individuals, but - crucially - allow for a historical analysis centred around children's movements, actions, and bodies. Children and their bodies - where they were located, which skills they had to learn, the clothes they wore - were the subject of decades-long Dutch colonial policy. Photographs are an indispensable source for recognising and understanding the implementation of this policy as well as colonised children's responses to it. Watching photography allows historians to see and study young individuals whose lives were in no way marginal, and should be brought into focus in colonial history.