Workshop Searching the Archives Part 2_1_Apr2, 2024

Remember Statia: Tracing Our Origins

GOAL OF THE PROJECT

The “Remember Statia: Tracing Our Origins” project spanned 2023 and 2024. About 15 people had registered to take part, mostly from St. Eustatius, but also people living in the Netherlands, St. Maarten and Curaçao, one from the US and even one all the way from Australia, who had traced her ancestry to St. Eustatius.

The participants did their own research after joining the workshops on how to search the archives and write your family history. This led to twelve wonderful stories about people, their Ancestors, who would otherwise be forgotten.

Getting the names of our Ancestors from archival sources and making them known is important to change the narrative. Our Ancestors were not just enslaved, they were people with a name, a face, a profession, a story. They came from different countries of the continent of Afrika, they had knowledge, values, and traditions. They survived the crimes and horrors of the Middle Passage; our Ancestors virtually live in us.  

Read more in our Press Release about the project.

PROGRAM

  • March 28 – Introduction Meeting ‘Retaking Our History & Rewriting Our Narrative’
  • April 2 – 4 – Searching the Archives
    • April 2: Understanding Archival Resources
    • April 3: Searching the Archives
    • April 4: Summarizing & sharing results
  • April 10 & 17 – Writing Your Family History
    • April 10: Introduction and Strategy
    • April 17: Crafting a Personal Story
  • August 7-24 – Artist-in-Residence program with artist Frederick Calmes
  • October 13 – Presentation AFRO Magazine, the REMEMBER STATIA Edition in Weesp, NL
  • November 11 – Presentation AFRO Magazine, the REMEMBER STATIA Edition in the Lions Den, Statia
  • November 12 – Exhibition artworks Frederick Calmes (GJB Public Library St. Eustatius)

RESULTS

In terms of content, the project achieved much beyond expectations:

  1. An overview of genealogical sources relevant to St. Eustatius (and the Eastern Caribbean region) set up by the Center for Family History (CBG) team and supplemented by sources collected by the training participants.
  2. Course materials for a train-the-trainer program on “Searching for your ancestors in the archives” specifically for St. Eustatius and the Eastern Caribbean region compiled by the Center for Family History (CBG) team.
  3. The writing workshops taught participants how to use the information found in the archives to write a compelling story about the lives of their African ancestors. The workshops also focused on decolonizing terminology, interpreting colonial sources and how to deal with “gaps” in your ancestors’ genealogical research in order to nevertheless be able to record their story.
  4. A 64-page full-color special edition of AFRO Magazine titled “The Remember Statia Edition” (STILL FOR SALE!) included in the magzine are:
    • 12 never-before-told stories by the participants about their Ancestors.
    • 2 poems. A poem by a participant from St. Eustatius and one by Annina van Neel, protagonist of the documentary “A Story of Bones,” which she recited during the reburial ceremony of the 325 “liberated Africans” from St. Helena in August 2022.
    • Editorials by the two project leaders and by the artist.
    • Explanations of the artist’s 12 works of art.
    • Contribution by the chair of the Statia Cultural Heritage and Implementation Committee on the process of reburial of the Golden Rock ancestors, realizing a memorial moment and involving the residents of St. Eustatius in this process.
    • 10 stories about persons, objects or events that have been important in the African Diaspora history of St. Eustatius including the history of a number of African cemeteries (Golden Rock, Godet, Congo and that of the Lazaretto leper colony).
  5. Twelve works of art also featured in the Magazine by artist and designer Frederick Calmes.
  6. An exhibitions on St. Eustatius of Frederick Calmes’ artwork.

FAMILY HISTORY SOURCES