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Introducing New Hypertexts on Interpreting (Studies): A tribute to Franz Pöchhacker
Edited by Cornelia Zwischenberger, Karin Reithofer and Sylvi Rennert
[Benjamins Translation Library 160] 2023
► pp. 126–146

Women as interpreters in colonial New Netherland

A microhistorical study of Sara Kierstede

| University of Vienna, Austria
| University of Vienna, Austria
This contribution presents a case study of Sara Kierstede (aka Roelof, Van Borsum, Stouthoff), a Dutch-speaking New Netherland settler and 17th-century interpreter who was proficient in Dutch and Native American languages and served as interpreter in a male-dominated colonial environment in settings that today would be labeled as public service interpreting (PSI) or, in some instances, diplomatic interpreting. Following a microhistorical approach, rooted in Translator Studies, we discuss the agency and positioning of Kierstede as one of the few female interpreters in a multilingual colonial contact zone. We use different historical and secondary sources and reinterpret them from a translatological perspective to explore Kierstede’s interactions and relations with other stakeholders as linguistic go-between and official provincial interpreter in Dutch colonial encounters and her role as an influential woman and cultural mediator in the self-contained network of relationships that characterised Dutch colonial society in New Amsterdam.
Keywords: translation history, colonial interpreting, Dutch colonial history, microhistory, translator biography, female agency, Sara Kierstede
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Colonial interpreting
  • Microhistory and translator biographies
  • Sara Kierstede
    • Sara Kierstede’s language biography
    • Sara Kierstede’s social network and status
    • Sara Kierstede’s agency and recognition as an interpreter
    • Sara Kierstede’s role as “health knowledge broker”
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 April 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.160.07kol
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