Afrikan History, Spirituality, Culture, Education and Consciousness: Invitation Dec. 11 at 4 pm: Screening 'A Story of Bones' documentary at Mike van Putten Youth Center St. Eustatius

Documentary ‘A Story of Bones’ and online ScreenTalk with the filmmakers

Sunday, December 11, 2022 at 4 pm | Mike van Putten Youth Center (the Lion's Den) | Entrance is free, a donation to cover the costs is welcome

St. Helena and St. Eustatius, two small islands, one shared history. The gruesome hidden history of the Middle Passage is now revealing itself. Our ancestors are talking.

'A Story of Bones' tells the story of Annina van Neel as she works to reclaim the neglected history of St. Helena after the remains of thousands of formerly enslaved Afrikans are uncovered on the remote island.

As the Chief Environmental Officer for Saint Helena's troubled £285m airport project, Annina learned of the island's most terrible atrocity - an unmarked mass burial ground of an estimated 9,000 formerly enslaved Afrikans in Rupert's Valley. It is one of the most significant traces of the trans-Atlantic slave trade still on earth.

Haunted by this historical injustice, Annina now fights alongside renowned Afrikan-American preservationist Peggy King Jorde and a group of disenfranchised islanders - many of them descendants of the formerly enslaved - for the proper memorialization of these forgotten victims. The resistance they face exposes disturbing truths about the UK's colonial past and present.

The St. Eustatius Afrikan Burial Alliance and Assiociated partners are bringing this documentary to the people of St. Eustatius to raise awareness about a forgotten part of our shared history. We fight for a respectful reburial of our ancestral remains and the realization of a memorial.

ScreenTalk with the filmmakers

From left to right: Dominic Aubrey de Vere, Annina van Neel and Peggy King Jorde (at the Berlin Human Rights Film Festival, October 2022)

' A Story of Bones' UK 2022 directors Joseph Curran and Dominic Aubrey de Vere, 95 min

The documentary first premiered at the New York Tribeca Film Festival where Carlos Lopes of our Alliance was present and represented the Alliance.

With many thanks to Unesco Netherlands who helped us realize the organization of this event. 💓