The project “St. Eustatius: Restoring Our Ties” is a continuation of the Alliance’s previous project, “Reclaiming Our Stories: Restoring Our Ties”.
Previous projects of the Alliance concentrated on activities that connected the Statian community to its Afrikan history, whereas this project focuses on the community itself.
The project is small quick-scan research that focuses on capturing the voice of the Afrikan diaspora community on the island. From June 6 to 24, 2025, Dr. Cain was in Statia and conducted twenty interviews and several focus group sessions in different settings and locations. The final focus group meeting in the Gertrude Judson Bicentennial Public Library was on June 19, 2025.
The scope of the interview questions:
- Personal details
- History of Statia
- The presence of Afrikans
- The remains of the deceased Afrikans
- Reburial and building monuments
- The role of memory and heritage
The project was made possible in part through the DNB Fund – sub-area Caribbean, in partnership with the Cultuurfonds Caribisch Gebied (CCG).
The manuscript has been completed in September 2025 and a new application to the CCG to cover the costs of publishing a book is currently being processed.