Scientists from South America, Ghana, Surinam, the Netherlands, Great Britain and the Caribbean will be coming to Curaçao between August 24 and 27 to discuss the results of a research on how the publics deals with its history of slavery. This is in connection with the book ‘Slavery heritage on display”. The production and consumption of traumatic heritage’ is the title of the book that Valika Smeulders (*1969 Curaçao) is writing and on which she is going to take her doctoral degree at Erasmus University in Rotterdam.
‘The Black Atlantic’ is the name given to the area in which, between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, the so-called trilateral trading took place, in which money, slaves and goods were transported between Europe, Africa and South America. Of that history, a lot can still be retrieved on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and nowadays tourism brings many visitors who are interested in this history and/or want to retrieve their roots.
Valika Smeulders has investigated how and what slavery heritage is offered in Curaçao, Surinam, Ghana and South America, what public is attracted to it and how the public deals with this heritage. That differs from country to country. What are those differences and how can you explain those differences?
Part of her investigation is dedicated to the exhibition, set up by Felix de Rooy and entitled ‘The Heritage of Slavery’, which could be seen in Curaçao in 2006 and the following year in Paramaribo. So, the same exhibition, but with big differences in the presentation and the effect on the public.
Sites with slavery heritage in Curaçao will also be visited.
This conference will be concluded with a public part on August 26, from 18.00 by NAAM. On that occasion, Valika Smeulders will summarize her investigation in Papiamento. After the break, Alex van Stipriaan will present the DVD ‘Back to the Roots’.
‘Back to the Roots’ was a project -concluded in 2006- of younger and older artists of Surinam and Antillean origin who, after a DNA investigation, went to find their roots in West Africa. The investigation is paid by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NOW)) and is supervised by Prof. Dr. Marlite Halbertsma and Prof. Dr. Alex van Stipriaan of Erasmus University in Rotterdam. NAAM Foundation will host this expert meeting in Curaçao.


For more information:
Fundashon NAAM
Johan van Walbeeckplein 13
Curaçao.
Tel. (5999) – 4621933/34
naamna@onenet.an
www.herensiadisklabitut.com


Participants Expert Meeting Willemstad Curaçao, August 24th-27th 2008

Luc Alofs MA, curator Historisch Museum, Archeologisch Museum, Aruba
Larry Armony, Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, St Kitts
Alissandra Cummins MA, president of ICOM, director Barbados Museum & Historical Society, Barbados
Prof. dr. Marlite Halbertsma, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Leo Helms, director Kura Hulanda Museum, Curaçao, Neth. Antilles
Lionel Janga, persident of the Board of Directors of NAAM, Curaçao, Neth. Antilles
Ada Korbee, @ADA Consultancy, Paramaribo, Surinam
Wayne Modest MA, director of the Museums of History and Etnography, Institute of Jamaica, Jamaica
Prof. Kwadwo Opoku-Agyemang PhD. Cape Coast University, Cape Coast, Ghana
Prof. Ciraj Rassool PhD., University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
Felix de Rooy MA, curator Landhuis Savonet, Curaçao, Neth. Antilles
Dr. René Rosalia, director Kas di Kultura, Curaçao, Neth. Antilles
Nigel Sadler MA, Sands of Time Consultancy, London, U.K.
Valika Smeulders MA, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Prof. dr. Alex van Stipriaan, Erasmus University Rotterdam/Royal Tropical Institute Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ieteke Witteveen MA, director Nationaal Archeologisch Antropologisch Memory Management (NAAM), Curaçao