Presentation on the Godet Burial Ground at the Nordic Tag Conference, Oslo 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the members of the St. Eustatius Afrikan Burial Ground Alliance, archaeologist marjolijn kok, gave a presentation at the Nordic TAG Conference that took place in Oslo April 21-23, 2022. 

Main theme of the conference was the use of archaeological theory in an academic world that favors measurable outcomes. The title of marjolijn's contribution was "Multiple disasters hitting from all angles: The Godet enslaved Afrikan burial ground on the Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius". It was presented in a session of seven presentations titled Unruly things, unruly theories: On the possibility of theorizing from archaeological encounters. As described on the conference website the aim of this session was to "theorize archaeological practices and approaches to heritage that are inclusive of the unexpected, unruly, unmanageable, or otherwise disruptive. [...] While extremely broad in scope, the concept of the ‘unruly’ is an attempt at capturing and theorizing what happens when archaeological encounters do not unfold in a clear, straightforward, expected manner.

Abstract as presented on the Conference website:

"In this paper I want to explore how natural, cultural and social disasters can come together and further unnecessary trauma and how to limit the damage. Sint Eustatius is a small Caribbean island of 21 km2 which is part of the Netherlands. Due to storms parts of the coast are in danger of erosion; this has led to the exposure of ancestral bones of enslaved Afrikans at the Godet site. The local archaeological company SECAR undertook a small rescue excavation. The site was later hit by hurricane Irma and Maria and again a rescue excavation took place, now with the University of Texas. 

The ancestral bones belong to a burial ground of Afrikan enslaved people who were either living on plantations or came from the nearby prison. Slavery can be viewed as a cultural disaster where people were dehumanized even after death as many burial grounds have no formal status or demarcation. Their cultural heritage was deliberately destroyed by multiple prohibitions as for example the prohibition against speaking their own language. The rescue excavations are never done in ideal circumstances but they can be used for restorative purposes. However the lack of engagement with the local community added a social disaster where people feel their ancestors are disrespected. 

Here I want to propose how we can set up conceptual frameworks that turn archaeology into a practice which is more concerned with social justice. Drawing from postcolonial studies and collaborative archaeology we can put the damages done by capitalism in a perspective where we envision new futures. Instead of repeating old colonial patterns deeply ingrained in archaeology we can play a role in building new more robust heritage landscapes. When we are prepared we can deal with unruly heritage landscapes even in times of natural disaster and avoid new social disasters."