Koninginnedag — “Queen’s Day” — was the annual celebration of the Queen’s birthday in the Dutch East Indies, the occasion on which every negorij on Ambon had its fluitorkest (flute orchestra) make a rondgang (tour) along the Resident and the Militaire Commandant. In Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. Koninginnedag is the book’s set-piece of the colonial loyalty of the Ambonese negorij: the day on which the negorij’s pride in its soldiers — its Ridders M.W.O., its Medaille voor Moed en Trouw dragers, its Kroontje holders — was made visible.
The rondgang on Ambon
“On Ambon had every negorij its fluitorkest and on the morning of Koninginnedag these orchestras made rondgang along the Resident and the Militaire Commandant.” The rondgang — the tour — of the fluitorkest along the Resident and the Militaire Commandant was the Ambonese negorij’s annual display of loyalty to the Queen. The rondgang was therefore both a political ceremony (the display of loyalty) and a social ceremony (the display of the negorij’s pride in its soldiers).
The tangsi celebration
On posts and in the tangsi Koninginnedag was celebrated with morning parade, sports, and evening music and dance. The Koninginnedag celebration was one of the feesten of the tangsi — alongside the Nieuwjaar (the grootste, vrolijkste feest), the Poeusa (the end of the fasting month), the schietfeest (the annual shooting festival), and the compagniesfeest.
The colonne Schmidt Koninginnedag
“Op Koninginnedag ging men op stap, op 2 September vond Nussy een voetafdruk.” On Koninginnedag the colonne Schmidt went “op stap” — on the move — to look for sporen of a rund that Tgk. Tjhi Majét had to slacht for his kandoeri (feestmaaltijd at the eind of the vastenmaand). On 2 September Nussy found the prent of a runderhoef — the sporen were carefully bedekt with bladeren. The Koninginnedag was therefore, in the colonne Schmidt, the occasion of the patrol that led to the destruction of the Tiriō bende.
Significance
Koninginnedag is significant in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. as the annual celebration of the Queen’s birthday and the occasion of the Ambonese negorij’s display of loyalty. The book’s argument is that Koninginnedag was both a political ceremony (the display of loyalty to the Queen) and a social ceremony (the display of the negorij’s pride in its soldiers). The Koninginnedag of the colonne Schmidt — the patrol that led to the destruction of the Tiriō bende — is the book’s small marker of the irony of the colonial loyalty: the day of loyalty to the Queen was, in the colonne Schmidt, the day of the patrol that destroyed the last Acehnese resistance.
See Also
- Koningin Wilhelmina
- Negorij
- Ambon
- Tangsi
- Militaire Willemsorde (M.W.O.)
- Medaille voor Moed en Trouw
- Kroontje (Eervolle Vermelding)
- Tahoen Baroe
- Poeusa
- bataljonsfeest
- Colonne Schmidt campaign against the Tiriō Teungkoes (1910-1911)
- Nussy
- Tgk. Tjhi Majét
- 2 September
Source
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), chapter “Van recruut tot pensioen” and chapter “De colonne Schmidt.”