The government wants to increase the public’s knowledge and awareness of the Kingdom’s shared legacy of slavery. One of the measures being taken is the creation of a learning network on the consequences of slavery and its historical legacy.
Objective
Within the learning network 20 municipalities work together to identify, acknowledge and commemorate slavery and its historical legacy at a local level. Participants share experiences with each other and learn from experts from community-based organisations. The learning network:
- guides municipalities’ local approach to addressing the consequences of slavery and its historical legacy;
- offers municipalities a feasible solution to administrative challenges;
- provides coherence and direction across activities;
- develops knowledge products on specific themes to support municipalities in practice:
- Guidelines on decolonising public spaces (in Dutch only);
- Guidelines on speaking with local residents about the consequences of slavery and its historical legacy (in Dutch only);
- History: What was the role of the Netherlands, as a country and in provinces and in municipalities? (discussion paper) (in Dutch only);
- Anti-black racism (discussion paper) (in Dutch only);
- Controversial cultural heritage (discussion paper) (in Dutch only);
- Guidelines on focusing on anti-black racism without target group policies (in Dutch only);
- Intensive engagement with community-based organisations (discussion paper) (in Dutch only);
- Initiating social dialogue (discussion paper) (in Dutch only).
Learning network meetings
The learning network holds thematic meetings covering subjects such as:
- history and the role of the Netherlands;
- slavery’s historical legacy and anti-black racism;
- working with local community-based organisations;
- controversial cultural heritage;
- social dialogue;
- ways of redressing the impact of slavery.
Newsletters
The network’s newsletters reflect on the thematic meetings and set out developments and lessons learned.