Related Papers
EULAC NEWSLETTER -3
Rewriting History/ Co-curating Identity – Conserving Cultural Heritage of the Caribbean.
2020 •
Alissandra Cummins
Invitation from EULAC Foundation's Newsletter to contribute to an edition dedicated to the theme 'Cultural Heritage' under the title cultural heritage of the Caribbean. In its mission to seek greater visibility and better understanding between the two regions, the Foundation publishes a quarterly newsletter in English and Spanish ... Each edition seeks to convey a set of perspectives on a specific topic, from the countries of the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Confronting Caribbean heritage in an archipelago of diversity...
Cheryl White, Benoit Bérard, Corinne L Hofman
The Caribbean archipelago is a series of independent island nations and overseas departments, territories, colonies, or commonwealths of developed countries. About 250 generations of human occupation in the Caribbean have produced a blend of traditions sometimes called a ‘‘cultural kaleidoscope.’’ Eight thousand years of shifting cultural identities are recorded in archaeological, architectural, documentary, and ecological records, and in memories and oral traditions known as ‘‘heritagescapes.’’ Caribbean heritagescapes are increasingly threatened by a combination of socioeconomic needs of modern society, ineffective governmental oversight, profit-driven multinational corporations, looters, and natural environmental processes. Balancing the needs of society against the protection and management of heritage requires careful thought and measured dialogue among competing stakeholders. Here we review the status of heritage in the Caribbean and offer a way forward in managing a diminishing supply of heritage resources in the face of current socioeconomic demands, and the unique legislative environments of independent island nations and overseas possessions of developed countries.
Caribbean Cultural Heritage and the Nation
Cummins Epilogue Caribbean Cultural Heritage and the Nation
2023 •
Alissandra Cummins
Centuries of intense migrations have deeply impacted expressions of cultural heritage on the ABC islands: Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. This volume queries how cultural heritage on these Dutch Caribbean islands relates to the work of nation-building and nation-branding. How does the imagining of a shared political “we” relate to images deliberately produced to market these islands to a world of capital? The contributing authors in this volume address this leading question in their essays that describe and analyze the expressions of the ABC islands. In doing so, they compare and contrast nation-building and branding on the ABC islands to similar practices taking place in the wider Caribbean. The expressions of cultural heritage discussed range from the importance of sports, music, literature, and visual arts to those related to the political economy of tourism, the work of museums, the question of reparations, and the politics and policies affecting the Caribbean Diasporas in the North Atlantic. This volume adds to the understanding of the dynamics of nation, culture, and economy in the Caribbean.
History Workshop Journal
Caribbean Museums and National Identity
2004 •
Alissandra Cummins
Public debate on the nature of history, ownership of heritage and the role of museums in shaping public memories of the past has not on the surface attracted a large audience in Caribbean nation states, but behind the scenes the picture is very different. Such questions have been central to recent advances at the Barbados Museum, and are at the core of a bitter struggle for control and 'ownership' of the island's history. From its inception in 1933, the Barbados Museum enjoyed both financial and policy support from the government, despite the suspicion of some members of the Barbadian Parliament that they might be 'indulging the hobbies' of 'a select group of aged, wealthy persons'. In their view, an institution of such importance 'should . . . not be left too much to the mercies of voluntary subscribers', where the 'exclusivity of the society' could serve as a deterrent to public participation. Official support continued with Independence (1966) and in 1973 Minister of Education Erskine Sandiford called for 'a new consciousness, a more intense search for identity, and for the roots of our being and belonging . . . The way forward depends upon our knowledge of who we are now and whence we came. It depends upon our conceptions of the past . . . Each generation faces the task of interpreting and re-interpreting the past'. By the early 1980s the Barbados government's determination to see the Barbados Museum function as 'an instrument of national identity' as well as an institution in the service of national development had been informed by eminent Barbadian poet and writer Kamau Brathwaite's critical review of the Museum, in his contribution to a survey of the indigenous cultural industries.
Anthropological Quarterly
Protecting Heritage in the Caribbean (review)
New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids
2013 •
Lynsey Bates
International Journal of Heritage Studies
'Building on the Power of the Past' the production and politics of heritage on a Dutch Caribbean Island
2019 •
Walter Van de Leur, Beth Aggett
Lying off the coast of Venezuela in a prime 'sun, sea, and sand' location, Curaçao is a popular tourist destination with a complex past. Since its colonisation by the Dutch in 1634, it has seen slavery, abolition, a civil rights movement, industrialisation, and severe environmental damage. All the while it has served as an exotic escape for wealthy travellers. In 2010, a high-profile European jazz festival came to the island and drew a large, international crowd. The success of this first Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival (CNSJF) sparked a new commercial strategy by the Curaçao Tourist Board to grow the industry and in recent years, more events began to spring up on the island. One of these was Punda Jazz Vibes, which is a free event run by local residents (by contrast, CNSJF tickets cost $195 per night). This paper examines the discourses that surround and connect these events, with special focus on the production and mediation of cultural heritage in the wider tourism infrastructure that supports them. We demonstrate the political nature of heritage production on Curaçao and show how the festivals are implicated in a long history of colonial and postcolonial exploitation, thus questioning the social impact of the tourism industry at large. ARTICLE HISTORY
Curator: The Museum Journal
Plantation to Nation: Caribbean Museums and National Identity Edited by AlissandraCummins, KevinFarmer, and RoslynRussell. Champaign, Illinois: Common Ground Publishing, 2013. 253 pages. Paperback $30(USD); e-book $10 (USD)
2014 •
Roslyn Russell, Richard Stoffle, Alissandra Cummins
New West Indian Guide
Basil A. Reid (ed.), Caribbean Heritage. University of the West Indies Press: Kingston, 2012.
2014 •
Konrad A. Antczak
Confronting Caribbean heritage in an archipelago of diversity: Politics, stakeholders, climate change, natural disasters, tourism, and development
Jorge Ulloa Hung, Corinne L Hofman, Cheryl White, Benoit Bérard
The Caribbean archipelago is a series of independent island nations and overseas departments, territories, colonies, or commonwealths of developed countries. About 250 generations of human occupation in the Caribbean have produced a blend of traditions sometimes called a ‘‘cultural kaleidoscope.’’ Eight thousand years of shifting cultural identities are recorded in archaeological, architectural, documentary, and ecological records, and in memories and oral traditions known as ‘‘heritagescapes.’’ Caribbean heritagescapes are increasingly threatened by a combination of socioeconomic needs of modern society, ineffective governmental oversight, profit-driven multinational corporations, looters, and natural environ- mental processes. Balancing the needs of society against the protection and management of heritage requires careful thought and measured dialogue among competing stakeholders. Here we review the status of heritage in the Caribbean and offer a way forward in managing a diminishing supply of heritage resources in the face of current socioeconomic demands, and the unique legislative environments of independent island nations and overseas possessions of developed countries.
