Institutional development · Research, innovation and assessment · Netherlands
Maastricht University study of Limburg's slavery ties underpins finished tapestry
Two Maastricht University historians traced how the southern Dutch province of Limburg may have been connected to slavery, and their findings shaped a large tapestry made with townspeople, artists and heritage bodies.
Why it matters: Heritage organisations and residents in Limburg now have university research, described as a first, on the province's possible ties to the Dutch slavery past.
According to Maastricht University, its historians Diana Miryong Natermann and Christian Ernsten started studying Limburg's past links to slavery in August 2025.
The university said the study belonged to DvONS (Draden van ons Nederlands Slavernijverleden), a national art and participation project in which people from the area, artists and heritage organisations together produced a large woven tapestry.
The university described the work as the first to shed light on possible, little-studied connections between the province and the Netherlands' involvement in slavery.
It added that Limburg now stands alongside other Dutch provinces that have looked into their own role in this past over recent years.
Editor’s view
Scott James, Research and Innovation Editor
With the tapestry now finished, people in Limburg have a woven work that combines the province's own stories with surviving marks of its slavery past, grounded in the two historians' study.
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