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In the beginning of the evening, Misja Immnik started with a presentation of his earlier works. Seven years ago he began writing 365 stories. A lot of his work from the last years derived directly from these poetic and fantastic stories. These fictitious stories and adventures are now being transferred to the real world. The audience always plays an important role in his stories and they are ‘asked’ to play along. Misja told us about a planned robbery in a museum with children from a primary school. In this situation Misja was seen as the initiator of the crime and in front of the children he was caught by police and taken away. He tried to give the childeren an alternative understanding of a museum, the idea of stealing an artwork gave them another understanding of the artworks.
Furthermore Misja told us about his initiative ‘Team Imminko’, a soccer team in which he is the coach and captain. Team Imminko is a football team from Rotterdam that is a symbol for cultural collaboration. The team consists of gentlemen between 18 and 45; all have different nationalities and backgrounds. Their sporting adversaries are from all different nationalities; with their games they raise money for Stichting Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland, an organisation that helps refugees.
 Misja ends his presentation with an explanation of his ministry of love. In this ministry he has special agents working on special missions. These agents get assignments with the main purpose to confront people with a more amorous world. After the formal part of the presentation he uses the presentation to expand his ministry and asks us to join his agency. We have to think about a codename and a special code number and within a couple of minutes we all got a special licence and are put to work within a small assignment while sitting together around the table. We all got the assignment to choose one person among the group and we have to think about a way how we can stimulate him or her in the pursuit of a more amorous world.
 After a short break we ask Bert Looper to tell us something about his activities in Tresoar, the Frisian Centre for Literature and History in Leeuwarden. Tresoar first came to exist in September 2002 after the fusion of three separate organisations, the Provinciale and Buma Library of Fryslan, the Ryks-archives and the Frysian Centre for Literature and Documentation. These organisations can be typified as centres for study and documentation, which maintain large collections of information about the history and culture of Friesland. Bert looper talks about his fascination for the archive. In the depot of the Tresoar archive they preserve million pieces of papers with memories. The archive preserves a collection that is a selection of the history of Friesland. You can clearly see that the archive represents a selection of the history; for example there are no preserved recordings/ memories of immigrants that came to Friesland during the last centuries, taken into account that friesland has a rich migrant history.
The first selection in the preservation process of an archive takes place on the moment when the decision is made to record a story. When the story enters the archive it becomes subject to the policy of the moment. An archive can therefore be seen as a mirror in the quest for identity. Another important thing is that an archive is always looked upon from the perspective of the moment; history is always interpreted from a contemporary point of view.
After his explanation of Tresoar, Bert Looper reads a poem of Theun de Vries that symbolises for him ‘the feeling of Friesland’. After 25 years Bert Looper returned to Friesland and he recognised in this poem, the feeling of nostalgia in relation to things you remember from your childhood. It is a memory of melancholy about a safe feeling from the past that symbolises the Frisian identity.
De loane
Nea weromfûn
de donkere loane
mei tichtflechte beamte
dêr hinge noch hea yn.
It rûze dêr súntsjes
wat wie it boadskip?
Lei fan âld folk
earne in fuotprint?
By tiden twirre't
yn de strewellen
heimlike fûgels
miskien in njirre...?
Súnichjes struide
de sinne wat goudjild
yn moude en kjitten
waard it wei.
Ik skramme my
oan toarnbei en hagebeam
ik ferdreamde de tiid
yn de rook fan in tateblom.
Ik socht en socht
nea weromfûn
de donkere loane
in plak om te stjerren
bûten de wrâld.
Theun de Vries (1 juni 2003)
 Esmée Lacle is a co-operator at Imagine IC, based in Amsterdam Southeast. For this presentation Esmee gives us an explanation about the project ‘verhalenvanger’ (story catcher). Imagine IC is a cultural institution that tries to visualize the culture and identity of migrants in the Netherlands. The policy of imagine IC is to let migrants tell and show their own story, seen from their own perspective. The concept of the story catcher originated from Mediametic. It’s a table with a beamer connected to a computer database specifically designed to evoke and collect memories of a specific community. The first community that have been ‘interviewed’ were Moluccan migrants now living in several senior apartments in the Netherlands. Esmee shows them fragments of historical television programms from the Dutch media (news reports) and through these stories and images the elderly people tell their own story. These reflections are recorded on the website. The format of a website is used because it’s not static and it can easily be adapted.
The meaning of a cultural identity is often determined by the acknowledgement of experiences of one group, but migrant groups are never homogeneous. The story catcher tries to show the diversity within a definition of cultural identity and gives attention to the exception. The website of the story catcher is especially followed by the participants and their family. Esmee tells about the way the website works for the third generation within the Dutch/ moluccan families; sometimes they hear stories they have never heard before. This is a way for them to learn more about their origin and it gives them a better understanding of their identity.
Goffe Jensma, is working at the UvA ( University of Amsterdam) as professor in Frisian language and literature, he is also part of the Department of history and literature at the KNAW-Fryske Akademy in Leeuwarden. He tells us that the Frisian culture is partially based on the idea of desire and departure. In the early times Friesland had a good economy and could compete with Holland. A lot of immigrants went to Friesland because there was a lot of work. But around 1800 Friesland degrade and became an outer region of the state. It lost its municipality court, the university closed and the main industries disappeared. From that time on Friesland was depending mostly on its agriculture. The elite disappeared as well and among this group of people a proud feeling emerged about their original cultural identity. They romanticised the cultural identity of the people they had left behind in Friesland.
The understanding of the Frisian cultural identity can be explained from the perspective of nostalgia. The departure of the elite created this awareness of identity from the idea that they had to protect Friesland in case it would degrade even more into a forgotten region. The Frisian language is also a language that is disappearing for already two centuries. Time after time new generations predict the extinction of the Frisian language. So you can say that the standard of Frisian is based in the past. This focus on their own history makes the Frisians sometimes quite defensive.
Contrary to this, Goffe wants to emphasize the strong will among Frisians to adept and change. Starting in the late middle ages till the 19th century Friesland had an early capitalistic society and they learned how to handle with economical developments, fashion phenomenons, immigration and mobility. The Frisian culture still has a strong ability to deal with changes. You will not find this willingness to adept and change among the Frisian nationalistic communities, it’s more to be found within protestant Christian communities.
A characteristic feature of the Frisian historiography is influenced by a lot of fantasy. The Oera-linda book for example tells the story of a Frisian state ruled by women. The book is written in an unknown ancient runen writing. In 2004 Goffe Jensma published a book about the case: De gemaskerde god. François Haverschmidt en het Oera Linda-boek. In his book, Jensma argued that Haverschmidt was the main writer of the book, with the help of Over de Linden and Verwijs. According to Jensma, Haverschmidt intended the Oera Linda Book as a parody of the Christian Bible. You can say Haverschmidt didn’t succeed in his approach. The book became a legend and a lot of people believed in the proclaimed truth. The lesson how to interpreted the bible was not understood.
 Goffe Jensma told us about a sectarian movement 'The daughters of Frya', they have created a society based on interpretations of the 'ancient' Oera Linda-book.
Abbas, a man from Iran (who was sitting around the table with us) asked us a question about the difference between culture and traditions? Is it easier to change traditions than cultures?
Goffe, tried to give an answer to this difficult question by saying that he sees traditions as the fundaments or pillars of a bridge. By taking away its fundaments, the bridge will collapse. But it’s easier to change the fundaments, to change them one by one. This process of transformation can’t be done all in once, because the bridge would collapse when all its pillars would be changed at the same time.
A culture includes traditions, makes traditions and gives traditions new meaning again and again.
Abbas, wonders if Misja creates culture or traditions.
Misja reacts by saying that he doesn’t know if he can place his work among one of these ideas. He is brought into a world that is not created by his own ideas. By means of his work he tries to conquer the world and change it to his own standards.
Abbas likes the world of Misja because it creates a world in which people can recognize each other through more universal human emotions.
Goffe makes a comparison with François HaverSchmidt. It’s a game about identity. François HaverSchmidt played the game with collective identity and Misja plays the game with individual identity.
Goffe introduces the idea that Misja could design a new inburgeringscursus. (an obligatory education program for immigrants to stimulate integration)
Esmée thinks that the inburgeringscursus represents a form of a congealed tradition, it emphasises a static approach to the notion of culture.
(during the writing of this report a selection is made. It’s not a complete document of the conversation.)
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