Permanent activity
Make your own bracelet with cowrie shells for Keti Koti
At Wereldmuseum Amsterdam, from 7 June to 6 July, Party! is all about Keti Koti. Here you will learn more about the commemoration and celebration of Keti Koti. During the activity, you will make your own bracelet or keyring, decorated with cowrie shells. Kauri shells were brought to the Netherlands from the Maldives by the United East India Company (VOC), where they were auctioned and used for trade. They were used as currency in the 17th and 18th centuries, for goods but also to buy enslaved people. Before that, shells were also used as currency in the continent of Africa Today, shells are used in jewellery, as decoration and are even on the Caribbean guilder, the currency on Curaçao and Sint Maarten.
