La Galigo: heritage as a pathway to connect
For the WANUA artists, the La Galigo manuscript was a key source of inspiration. This epic Bugis text is poetry, written on palm leaves in Bugis language and is considered to be the most voluminous literary work in the world. Dating from approximately the 14th century and originating in the former Bugis kingdom of Luwuq in South Sulawesi, it is rooted in oral traditions. Its contents are pre-Islamic and of an epic-mythological nature, with high literary quality. The majority of the original manuscripts are stored in the archives of the Leiden University, The Netherlands.
“Retaking The Knowledge
They took the spices.
They took the islands.
They took the names, the stories, the languages.
And then they archived them.
More than 18,000 manuscripts.
Over 220,000 photographs.
Around 30,000 maps.
10 kilometers of memory.
La Galigo. Sangiang Serri. Buginese, Makassarese, Moluccans, Timorese, Torajanese, Bataknese, Javanese, Acehnese, Balinese—written on palm leaves, on fading paper, on fragile film.
Stored not in Sulawesi or Maluku—but in cold drawers and silent shelves in Leiden, far from the lands they speak of.
I’ve stayed in Leiden long enough to experience and understand how this institution gathered knowledge from our culture and history for the sake of colonization.
And I’ve stayed here long enough to feel, deeply, how the struggle to access and reclaim that knowledge is real—and still painfully difficult.
We cannot undo the theft.
But we can retake the knowledge.
Visit. Read. Touch. Ask. Remember. Tell. Tell. Tell.
Because if we don’t, someone else will write our stories for us—again.
Leiden, 29 April 2025”
During the exchange week, the artists visited the original manuscripts at Leiden University. Here you can read Louie Buana’s reflection.
“At the Leiden University Library, where one of the world’s largest collections of Indonesian manuscripts rests—much of it taken during colonial rule— we came face to face with fragments of our ancestral knowledge. We met NBG 188, the 12-volume La Galigo copied by Colliq Pujie in exile; the Sangiang Serri lontar, speaking of sacred ties between humans and nature; and the Kutika, a Bugis guide to interpreting signs and making decisions in rhythm with the natural world. These are not just texts—they are living knowledge taken from the Wanua, our land of origin. Now, we return to them not to admire, but to reclaim, so their wisdom may once again guide our future.” - Louie Buana
“Through La Salaga and the vast cosmos of La Galigo, we rediscover the ancient bonds between Makassar and Maluku — ties forged long before colonial borders, in shared seas, sacred kinships, and ancestral exchange.
Programs such as WANUA matter. They create space for us — across islands, continents, and generations — to retake the knowledge, to hold our past in our own hands, and to speak our stories in our own voices.”
— Louie Buana, PhD Candidate, researcher and storyteller
Did you know one of the most extensive and valuable La Galigo manuscripts is held in the archives of Leiden University in The Netherlands?
