Because many Moluccans were 'nationless', they were in no position to travel to the Moluccas for years. This situation started to improve in 1980: an increasing number of Moluccans started to visit the Moluccas, and especially the villages where they came from originally. There they encountered the Moluccan culture that had gone through so many changes in the last fifty years. These experiences received their own place in the Moluccan tradition in the Netherlands.

The ties between Moluccans here and there remain strong. Various projects have been started to help local villages by building schools or by constructing water facilities. When a civil war broke out on the Moluccas in 1999, innumerable aid initiatives were started in the Netherlands.