Cerita dari Utara or Story from the North is a family history, which runs from the Talaud Islands in North Sulawesi via Papua to Europe and back again. It is the story of 3 generations: Vaderzegen Oeghoede, who mapped the inlands of Papua, Dirk Oeghoede who became a visual artist, and Nina Oeghoede who works a writer and translator. But it is also a story of fluidity and change, intercultural influence, and an exploration of what it means to be a person in an ever-changing world. As part of Riwanua’s Easy Launching, Nina Oeghoede will tell us this story from the north.
Nina Oeghoede (°1977, in ‘s Hertogenbosch, NL) is a member of the Ughude family from Manggarang, Kabaruan of the Talaud islands. She spent part of her childhood in Indonesia, where her father worked as an artist in both Jakarta and Bandung. She received an MA in Philosophy from the University of Ghent, Belgium, and works as a writer, translator and editor of literary and contemporary art texts (recent articles include a study of Pramoedya Anata Toer’s novel Arus Balik, and recent translations include the work of the Surinam writer of Javanese origin, Karin Amatmoekrim). Nina’s current research interest focuses on the Sangihe-Talaud region, as she retraces the family history, collecting folk tales, and linguistic and historical information from Indonesian, Dutch and English language sources.