The Impact of Colonialism on Pusaka Manuscript Collections in Kerinci

 

THE BRIEF period of Dutch colonisation of Kerinci (1903-1942) had a limited impact on the pusaka manuscripts. In the post-annexation period, Dutch colonial officers collected eight pusaka manuscripts, together with other indigenous regalia and ethnographic items, in order to provide ethnographic material from Kerinci to Batavia. 

In the early 20th century, efforts by Jacobson (1915), Westenenk (1922), and Voorhoeve (1941), shifted away from collecting, moving towards scholarly investigation through copying, photographying, and transliterating. In addition, the position of the depati as representatives of the colonial administration and their curiosity about manuscripts they could not read, led them to support this colonial research. The colonial authorities and agents, at the same time, recognised the adat institutions and followed the adat regulations of Kerinci society during their studies of manuscripts there. 

Compared to precolonial times, during which access to pusaka was limited to ritual contexts, the colonial era saw depati permitting their pusaka collections to be observed and researched as long as adat regulations were followed and the items were not removed from their customary keepers. This resilience of adat explains why the vast majority of Kerinci manuscripts remain preserved in their original context as pusaka until today.

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Hafiful Hadi Sunliensyar, "The Impact of Colonialism on Pusaka Manuscript Collections in Kerinci", Archipel, 110 (2025): 281-306.