Aluk To Dolo shows how a family history became intertwined with the colonial history of the former Dutch East Indies. The story is set in Central Celebes (now Sulawesi), Indonesia, the home of the Toraja people, where the grandfather of Ringel Goslinga (NL) was appointed missionary doctor in 1933.

In 1913, a Dutch mission was deployed to the Toraja. The spread of Christianity as a new faith was received with mixed feelings on the island. The mission reached a low point when A. A. van de Loosdrecht, the first missionary, was killed by a spear. This story and its aftermath illustrate the difficult and tense relationship between colonisers and indigenous people. Eventually, most Toraja converted to Christianity. Traditional feasts and rites were banned in return for education, churches, and medical care.

More than 100 years after Van de Loosdrecht’s murder, Goslinga travels to Sulawesi to find out more about his roots. He meets the Toraja of today and learns about the local customs and objects that still play a role in their culture, despite Western influence. Some utensils are still woven from natural materials. Other more symbolic objects, such as devil banishers and medicine boxes, have fallen into disuse since the conversion to Christianity. As a result, much of the Toraja’s knowledge of weaving has been lost.

In the past, many woven objects were sent to the Netherlands for research. What began as a photographic research into the interface between ancestor worship and missionary work, gradually deepened into a study of almost extinct animistic patterns and traditional weaving forms. In the process, Goslinga learned the ‘language’ of weaving and sought to record these customs and traditions before they fall into oblivion.

In this exceptionally layered book, a hybrid collection of elements from the present and the past are woven together to create a kaleidoscopic view that invites the reader to explore.