If a cockatoo, that striking bird of the Moluccas, does not fly further than 10 kilometers from its nest, the Moluccans who came to the Netherlands in 1951 were much further from home. It was the women who had to set up a new nest for their family in a former concentration camp. Burdened with post colonial trauma and unvoluntarily residing in The Netherlands. They did it with hardly any resources, with creativity, love and some small memories of their faraway home.
This Cockatoo’s Nest is therefore primarily a tribute to these women who turned a barrack camp into a livable home. The nest is made up of white boxes, empty like the barracks they found in the camp. The boxes were an invitation to former residents of Camp Schattenberg to fill them with their memories. There is a story behind every object, every pan, chair or ball.
Temporary sculpture in the context of a site specific theatre play East Side Story, performed in Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork.
