In 2030, the National Museum of Slavery will open on Amsterdam’s Java Island. In the 17th century, the Netherlands played a significant role in the transatlantic slave trade, which saw over 600,000 African women, men, and children forcibly enslaved in the Americas. Additionally, the Dutch East India Company was involved in the trafficking of up to 1 million Asians.

In December 2022, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte formally apologized for the Netherlands’ slave trade past in four languages in a speech at The Hague. As part of his national apology, Rutte also announced the establishment of a National Museum of Slavery and announced €27 million fund for the museum.

The international community appreciates the communication efforts the country is making to build the new museum. Over the past year, a team of researchers surveyed the opinions of more than 5,000 people in the Netherlands’ former colonies, the Caribbean Netherlands, the United States, and the Netherlands to come up with a vision for the museum. The report, released in February, is titled “vertel het hele verhaal(tell the whole story),” expressing the museum’s commitment to telling the whole story of the Dutch slave trade.

The 9,000㎡ museum, which will be built through an international architectural competition, will include “rooms for healing,” research labs, a children’s area, and a kitchen. Culture Minister Fleur Gräper-van Koolwijk said the museum will be “room for recognition, commemoration, healing, admission… not just for the relatives of enslaved people but for everyone.”