Mama Baranka (Moeder Rots)
Mama Baranka (Moeder Rots) stands in Amsterdam’s Vondelpark, surrounded by grass, water and sunlight. Nelson Carrilho created the bronze sculpture in 1984 as a memorial to Kerwin Duinmeijer, a fifteen-year-old Dutch teenager of Antillean descent who died through intolerance.
The woman stands directly on the ground, without a pedestal, expressing vigilance, steadfastness and eternity. Openings and cracks shape the bronze, recalling Curaçao’s rocks while letting light pass through the darkness. Fundashon Antiano Amsterdam initiated the work, and its unveiling accompanied the first commemoration of Kerwin’s death. A poem by Luis H. Daal appears on the base, connecting Amsterdam’s tradition of tolerance with the tragedy of intolerance.
Annual commemorations, gatherings and community projects bring flowers, earth, remembrance and conversations about diversity to this place. The sculpture’s strongest detail remains its grounded figure, whose feet meet the earth while light enters through the cracks.
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