As a previous blog explained, we have been working with the community that looks after the Dato Koyah shrine in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Penang, Malaysia. The shrine is believed to be the site of the burial of an Indian prisoner sent to Penang during the British colonial Continue Reading
Exhibition: Exiles and Prisoners from French Indochina in New Caledonia (Part 2)
This blog presents the second part of an exhibition that launched at the Amicale Vietnamienne, Nouméa, on 21 February 2024. The exhibition – presented here in the English version – explores the history of deportation and exile from French Indochina to New Caledonia, within its global context. Readers might be Continue Reading
Exhibition: Exiles and Prisoners from French Indochina in New Caledonia (Part 1)
This blog presents the first part of an exhibition that launched at the Amicale Vietnamienne, Nouméa, on 21 February 2024. The exhibition – presented here in the English version – explores the history of deportation and exile from French Indochina to New Caledonia, within its global context. Readers might be Continue Reading
A writer in the penal colony: Ivan Pavlovich Iuvachev’s diaries of Sakhalin Island
Most genealogists and archivists can only dream of finding a cache of historical detail such as is contained in the personal diaries of Ivan Pavlovich Iuvachev, a naval officer who served a term of political exile in the infamous Sakhalin penal colony between 1887 and 1895. Immediately after his arrival Continue Reading
Of Satellites and Sentiment: the descendants of Vietnamese prisoners in French Guiana
On April 18 2008, Vietnamese journalist Danh Đức was standing in the rain at the Kourou Space Centre, the European Space Agency’s spaceport in French Guiana, a territory that is, as an overseas département, still an integral part of France. Eyes heavenward, Danh Đức was eager to witness the launch Continue Reading
An Algerian Prisoner in New Caledonia Part 2: The Descendants of Abdelkader ben Cherfia
In a previous blog, An Algerian Prisoner in New Caledonia, we began the story of Abdelkader ben Cherfia. A blacksmith from Blida, Abdelkader met an untimely death as a murder victim at the hands of his wife, Peroline Langevin, in 1901. His death notwithstanding, Abdelkader ben Cherfia’s life story reflected Continue Reading