Dutch Caribbean

Peer support in mental healthcare may benefit the patients, but also the direct environment of families, friends and neighbours. Through Participatory Action Research (PAR), we aim to introduce peer support interventions in Curaçao in co-creation with the community, patients and peer counsellors. Given the complex cultural-historical context and the smallness of our Caribbean island society, we focus on the potential of these interventions for destigmatizing mental health issues. In our presentation, we discuss first findings and experiences with doing PAR in this context, and engage in dialogue on how these insights could be applicable to small communities in general.

The first cultural heritage management organisation on St Eustatius, the St.Eustatius Historical Foundation, was established in 1974. During the 1980-1990snumerous archaeological projects, including site inventories, were conducted byNorman F. Barka and his students at the College of William and Mary (USA) andalso by Leiden University’s Aad Versteeg. Much of Barka’s work was conducted inconjunction with a number of building restoration/renovation projects completedduring the 1980s.The Island Territory first drafted a Monuments Ordinance in 1989. AMonuments Foundation was established in 1990, and in 1992 the Curaçao basedarchitecture firm Plan D2 compiled a “Master Plan for the Oranjestad HistoricCore Restoration,” which led to an inventory of 110 monument sites by Saskiade Kock in 1995, and two more urban historic renovation plans for the island in1996 (Plan D’2 1989; Haviser and Gilmore 2011). The St. Eustatius Center forArchaeological (SECAR) was initially conceived in 1997, however, funding for theproject was not made available until 2004. The author was the founding Directorand also acted as the Island Archaeologist in the service of the St Eustatius IslandGovernment. With SECAR, the significance of archaeological heritage on St.Eustatius is reaching a broader public and professional audience than ever before(Gilmore 2006a, 2006b, 2006c, 2006d, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2014a, 2014b).In May 2008, a monuments ordinance was passed by the Island Council,however, there is still no local protection for archaeological heritage in place; the St.Eustatius Center for Archaeological Research (SECAR) has spearheaded an effortto alleviate this issue. SECAR has an unusual opportunity to heavily influencehow Dutch heritage laws will be implemented on the BES islands (Gilmore &Dijkshoorn 2005). Of primary importance is the aforementioned European UnionValetta Convention. Under the Valetta Treaty, all archaeological heritage within asignatory’s country is protected. Each nation decides how to enforce the tenets ofthe treaty and to what extent research archaeology is permitted. As it now stands in the Netherlands, commercial archaeology conducted prior to developmentis the only option. Also, all archaeology is paid for by the developer—not thegovernment.The CRM project described here was conducted prior to the implementationof any EU or local legislation governing archaeological sites and architectural monuments. The project was planned, conceived and completed as a potentialmodel for future restoration and archaeological work on the island.

ABSTRACT. We discuss the significance of two
manatee records for the Dutch Windward Islands
(Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten) as well as six manatid
and one crocodile record for the Dutch Leeward
Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao). The persistence
of the manatee in the Lesser Antilles until the early
17th century suggests that in pre-Columbian times
manatees would have also occurred regularly in the
Dutch Windward Islands. In pre-Columbian times,
suitable habitat for the American crocodile was sufficient
in the Dutch Leeward Islands to have supported
small resident populations, and habitat for
the manatee was possibly also present. Both species
have been widely hunted by early humans and we
surmise that small, isolated populations of these species
could easily have been extirpated on the Dutch
Leeward Islands well prior to European colonization.
However, two manatee sightings within the last
five years, suggest that these islands may somehow
still form part of the active range of this rare and
elusive species.

Whereas political scientists tend to make binary distinctions between sovereign
states and subnational units, in recent decades the number of a third, hybrid
category of federacies or non-sovereign jurisdictions has strongly increased. In
this paper, we explore the benefits and downsides of non-sovereignty from
the perspective of these territories’ inhabitants. We zoom in on the six islands
of the Dutch Caribbean, which in 2010 experienced a profound change in
their political status. Using data from two large-scale opinion surveys that we
conducted in 1998 and 2015, respectively, we show that the population of
the Dutch Caribbean islands maintains a highly ambiguous attitude towards
the non-sovereign status. While many respondents appreciate the material
benefits of the enduring link with the metropolis, there are significant
emotional and ideational objections to this relationship. These findings are
embedded in broader scholarly discussions about the position of
decentralized and peripheral jurisdictions vis-à-vis their administrative core.

With chapters by Matthew L. Bishop, J. A. Roy Bodden, Audrey Célestine, Peter Clegg, Gérard Collomb, Justin Daniel, Lammert de Jong, May Hen, Edenz Maurice, Guy Numa, Genève Phillip, Chelsea Schields, Ron van der Veer, Wouter Veenendaal and William Vlcek.

This edited collection examines the realities of the last remnants of the European colonial empires in the Caribbean, namely the British, Dutch and French overseas territories.

Although known and perhaps infamous for their role as high-end tourist destinations and financial centres, these small jurisdictions are complex and multifaceted places. While this volume considers their role as financial centres, it does so from alternative and original perspectives by examining how the sector shapes the internal dynamics of these Caribbean societies, and how it is itself shaped by global trends. A range of contributions is included that highlight other key issues. Political relations between the territories and their metropolitan centres and with the European Union are the focus of several chapters, highlighting the stresses and strains, and in many cases the unfulfilled expectations of devolved governance. Further chapters describe the economic instability and factors of political conflict faced by some of these societies and the available options to address them. Finally, several chapters reflect more specifically on the territories’ internal social and ethnic dynamics, and the hierarchies and inequalities that result.

Bringing together a variety of different disciplinary perspectives, from political science to sociology, and from anthropology to geography, this book will be of great interest to any academic or student who wishes to see how an often overlooked part of the world is actually a key site of socio-economic transformation and a crucial nexus in global affairs.

This Exploration focuses on ideologies of belonging and feelings of nationness on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Sint Maarten and Sint Eustatius. The new constitutional framework that came into effect within the Kingdom of the Netherlands on 10 October 2010 conferred a new political status to these islands, thereby affecting the complexity of political subjectivi- ty, nationness and belonging within the context of Caribbean nonsovereignty. The article presents primary schools as important ethnographic sites to study the (re)construction of ideologies of belonging and senses of nationness. Here susceptible minds can be moulded into internalizing ideologies, through which children might be socialized into dividing their fellow citizens or citizens-to-be into those who belong and those who do not. Preliminary to extensive ethnographic field research, the authors assume transmigrancy and diasporic reli- gion respectively as central features that might challenge current fictions of modern secular sovereignty.