“I have a thing for Indians. I don’t know what, but I just like them,” says 60-year-old Leida Heins-Scheepstra. She is sitting on the couch in the living room of her house in De Kiel. among the Indians. Figurines, posters, woodcarvings: Leida has now collected about 500 of them.
Where does the love for Indians come from? To be honest, Heins-Scheepstra has no idea. “Maybe I was an Indian in my past life,” she says with a big grin. She just thinks their heads are so pretty. Striking. “I like their look,” she explains. “An Indian is very free and peaceful. You don’t get that with ordinary Dutch people.”
You don’t see many women in her gigantic collection, which has spread throughout the house, even in the toilets. “I don’t like female Indians. Sometimes they are there, but then it’s a set and I can’t separate them.” Perhaps it is the large adornment, which is often lacking in women. “I don’t know. But I just find women less beautiful.”
Leida Heins-Scheepstra has been collecting since childhood. She scours all kinds of markets, or gets them from the thrift store. “Or I get them on my birthday. Because it’s not that hard to think of a present for me.” She says emphatically that she wants male Indians. No women.
What does her husband think of it all? “He should like it. It’s no different,” she says laughing.
Heins-Scheepstra quietly continues with her collection. “Maybe one day I’ll turn it into a museum here,” she says jokingly. “Then I can also ask for an entrance fee.” She can use that to save for her big dream. She really wants to go to America, or Canada, to go to a reservation for Indians. “And when I die, I want my ashes to be scattered there, with the Indians,” she concludes.