The great-grandfather of the artist Nuki traded in pearls, here symbolised by the yellow circles. | Photo: Patricia Spyer

Three yellow figures in a traditional canoe glide past a street artist, apparently indifferent to the fact that he’s busy telling their story with his brush and paint. ‘Nuki’ – that’s his artistic name – is painting a mural on the façade of his grandmother’s house as a “tribute to the ancestors”, as he explains to the anthropologist Patricia Spyer. Her research involves investigating the street art of the Banda Islands in eastern Indonesia.

Nuki’s murals are an exploration of his family history. This particular mural depicts his great-great-grandfather and his brothers, who acquired wealth and prestige by trading in pearls back in the 19th century. Those pearls are represented symbolically by yellow circles above and below the canoe he’s painted. The camera team that’s following his work is collaborating with Spyer and the Indonesian filmmaker Ratih Prebatasari to create an ethnographic film about artists in Banda. “The deep connection between these artists and their homeland and their keen interest in their history are evident in almost all their work. Their islands were highly influenced by colonial rule”, says Spyer.

The Banda Islands might be a remote archipelago today, but in the 17th century they were known as the Spice Islands and were a major site of European rivalries. In order to retain these islands, their Dutch colonial rulers definitively ceded their settlement of New Amsterdam on the Manhattan peninsula to England, along with all its 2,000 inhabitants. This proved a really good deal for the English Crown, because the city of New York that emerged there became essential to the early British Empire.

The European trading powers didn’t shy away from brutality. In order to control rich commodities such as pearls and nutmeg plantations, they murdered a majority of the local population and brought enslaved people from other parts of their empire to the islands. These events continue to shape the societies of the Banda Sea to this very day. In her film, Patricia Spyer wants to show “how inclusive, incredibly passionate and committed” the artists are in this highly diverse society. “They want their works not just to commemorate their history, but also to imagine a better future”.