Project Presented to Caribbean Curators and Museum Managers

On the 13th of December, project organizers Jimena Lobo Guerrero Arenas and Oliver Antczak presented the 'Whispers of Caribbean Isles' project to a group of visiting museum experts and curators from the Caribbean. The presentation took place during the event 'Approaches to empowering communities' organized at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Present were distinguished visitors from the Caribbean including Marsha Pearce, lecturer in Viuseual Arts and the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, Alissandra Cummins, Director of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, Christelle Lozère, Professor of Art History at l’Université Antilles in Martinique, and Susana Guimarães, curator of archaeology, Musee d'archéologie amérindienne Edgar Clerc, Guadeloupe. Present were also Carol Brown-Leonardi, Neal Spencer, Carey Robinson, and David Farrell-Banks.

Whispers of Caribbean Isles is a participatory research project that aims to recover Indigenous pasts through the study of MAA's Caribbean archaeology collections by contemporary Caribbean groups, while fostering more inclusive and restorative narratives of memory and identity through participatory research. The project also aims to create a pilot digital platform that allows sustained dialogue with communities remotely in future participatory projects (that can be implemented by different museums/collections).

The visiting experts from the Caribbean offered useful critique of the project including offering guidance on future directions the project and ensuing funding should take.

Alongside this presentation there were two more presentations of projects hosted at the Fitzwilliam Musuem and the ensuing discussion included topics such as:

How are Caribbean institutions, particularly museums, involving communities in decision making? What innovative approaches could the Cambridge collections explore with communities & audiences, that de-centre narratives, relinquish ownership and enable others’ agency in the narratives and activities around our collections.