Looking Behind Nias Faces: The Face of Ono Niha is a research-based exhibition that critically engages with Dutch colonial representations of Nias and its people, the Ono Niha. Through a decolonial lens, the exhibition examines how visual, spatial, and scientific practices, such as ethnographic mapping, village restructuring, photography, and physical anthropology, were used to exert control and construct racial hierarchies during colonial rule. Key figures like colonial officer Engelbertus Schröder and anthropologist J.P. Kleiweg de Zwaan played central roles in producing these knowledge systems, which continue to shape perceptions of the island and its inhabitants today.

The exhibition is part of the Pressing Matter Research Consortium, by Dr Sadiah Boonstra and Laetitia Lai (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), and Dr Gertjan Plets (Utrecht University), in close collaboration with Universitas Nias Raya. 

Contributors from Universitas Nias Raya include:

Dr Martiman S. Sarumaha, M.Pd.

Dr Rebecca Evelyn Laiya, MRE

Dr Sitasi Zagoto, M.A

Mitranikasih Laia, M.Sc.

Sesuaikan Sarumaha, M.Pd.

Senadaman Wau, S.Pd., M.Hum.

Mega Chrstin Morys Lase, M.Kom

Supported by Pressing Matter and the University Museum Utrecht, with CultureLab as an associate partner, this exhibition foregrounds the need to question colonial archives and reimagine more just and accountable ways of engaging with the past.