Descendants of the VOC Presented by Make Smoking History Sat 5 Nov 2016 – Sun 26 Feb 2017 9:30am – 3:00pm Museum of Geraldton A photographic essay by Geert Snoeijer and Nonja Peters Descendants of the VOC is a photographic exhibition which began as a venture to gain a clear understanding of the far-reaching impact on indigenous peoples in Western Australia, Indonesia and South Africa, of the Dutch East India Company’s (VOC) incursion into the Indian Ocean region during the ‘Age of Exploration’ from the end of the 16th Century. It explores the theory that 17th Century Dutch sailors went ashore (either intentionally or as survivors of shipwrecks) in Western Australia, Indonesia and South Africa, co-habited with the local population and produced offspring. In some cases these descendants bear physical features which are typically Dutch, in other cases their oral histories include stories of “white survivors of a Tall Ship shipwrecked on the cliffs.” The exhibition features beautifully-shot portraits of people in these three regions who claim Dutch heritage, along with some of the stories which have been passed on from generation to generation. Pieter Smit, South Africa; Petronella Wouthuysen, Indonesia; Rodney Oglivy, Australia Copyright Geert Snoeijer