In their 10th year of existence, the Dutch Caribbean Heritage Platform, held their 4th conference,
with this year’s theme of “Awareness.” The biannual conference was held on Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint
Eustatius, from May 5-May 9.
Present at the conference were participants from the BES islands and the rest of the Dutch Caribbean (Sint
Maarten, Curacao, and Aruba), including participants from Anguilla.
The DCH platform was founded on the basis of strengthening cooperation among the Dutch Caribbean
islands, exchanging knowledge, networking, and learning and sharing information, practices, and
activities—with the support of ErfgoedAcademie, a Dutch institute, founded in 1986, for heritage education.
The Department of Communication (DCOMM) Documentalist, Lee Williams attended the conference, which began on Sunday evening with a soft opening where Acting Minister of Education, Culture, Youth & Sports Lyndon Lewis gave a short opening remark. Afterwards, there was a presentation by Jay Haviser on the topic of archaeology on St Maarten.
On Monday morning, Governor of Sint Maarten Ajamu G. Baly gave a brief address before the attendees
went on a scavenger hunt to discover the different historical and cultural sites.
On Tuesday, participants were on Saba, and on Wednesday, St. Eustatius.
On Thursday morning, the participants, visitors, and guests returned to St. Maarten and attended the
concluding part with a webinar with John Leerdam and Peggy Brandon, two of three Quartermasters for the slavery museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Afterwards web conference, there were productive
discussions, exchanges of thoughts, ideas, and suggestions.
In the afternoon, the Head of the Archivo Nacional Aruba Mr. Raymond Hernandez presented DCOMM’s
documentalist Williams with a memory stick with digitalized archives of that had relevant information to St. Maarten. For further information visit nationaalarchief.nl and coleccion.aw.
Williams said that the conference was very positive and productive, resulting in the preservation of
DCOMM’s archive for the future generation.
