Brief History

Fertitility Statue

          Establishing a museum in the Province of Maluku in Eastern Indonesia, started during the years of the 1970-s. At that time Belgian anthropologist (Prof. Dr. Tursch from Bruxell)  and an American anthropologist (Prof. Dr. Pierret from Chicago) found precious worshiped ancestral wooden statues in the South Eastern islands of Maluku. Most of those statues originates from the Leti, Moa and Lakor archipelago and the Tanimbar archipelago. Those artifacts were forbidden to take abroad due the the law of "Monumenten Ordonantie Staatsblad 238 0f 1931". The great numbers of artifacts led to the establishment of "Museum Siwalima".

     
Symbolic meaning of the word siwalima
          The term "siwalima" was chosen to name this museum. This was based on some basic and essential backgrounds of the term siwalima itself. The essential meaning siwalima is identical to the way of life of Maluku society.
          Literally siwalima is formed by two words "siwa" menaing nine (9) and "lima" menaning five (5). Siwa and Lima are two main social groups still existing in MalukuAnd nobody knows exactly what those number represent. Both groups in the northern part of Maluku (North Maluku) is called "uli siwa" and "uli lima" and in the south eastern island are known as "ur siw(a)" and (l)urlim(a).
Several cultural aspects could be used as an indicator to determine whether society or clan belongs to the siwa or the lima group; for example through the quantity of dowries paid to the bride, the architecture of houses, initial rituals, location of the sacred stone (batu pamali) at the "baileu" (village meeting house.).

Front Gate Ethnographic Museum

Its growth
          The compound once owned by "Yayasan Maluku Irian Barat Makmur" has been renovated to make it function as a museum. several other building were added such as: office and administration, security,  storage and library, workshop, temporary exhibition hall, marine museum, preservation and conservation, theatre, curatorial office and others.
          The first collections of this museum were the seized artifacts, as mentioned before, contribution from the Maluku Protestant Church, Mr. Herman Pietersz, ex army commander of Maluku and many others.