The Lame Island Massacre: A Dark History

The Lame Island Massacre in the 1600s is a tragic example of colonial violence, resulting in the near annihilation of the Lame people, a subgroup of the Saraya. Following the murder of Dutch sailors in separate incidents, the Dutch East India Company launched a punitive campaign against the island's native population, culminating in 1636 with a brutal expedition. This event led to the deaths or deportations of about 1,200 inhabitants, marking an extreme case of cultural assimilation and genocide. The brutal nature of the campaign was propagated by a desire for revenge and a push to establish dominance over other indigenous groups in the region, driven by colonial ideologies of superiority and bloodshed.