Finn van der Leden (left), Vito Charles (centre) and Joan Bourque in front of the mural at the Saba Heritage Center.
SABA–A large, colourful mural is now beautifying the wall at the entrance of the Saba Heritage Center in Windwardside.
The mural was painted by artist Joan Bourque and designed by archaeologist/artist Finn van der Leden. The 3- by 5-metre mural depicts Saba’s heritage, both tangible and intangible. It includes Saba’s important historic dates such as the abolition of slavery and elements of the indigenous culture from the past up to today, such as The Road, Saba Spice, Saba Lace, hat-making, the Maypole Dance and fishermen.
The mural at the Saba Heritage Center.
Inspiration for the design of the mural came from Saba’s steep slopes, as their form is similar to that of the wall. Although not every aspect of Saba’s rich history could be captured in only one mural, care has been taken to include a full range of people, ages and activities. The historical accuracy of the depicted scenes came from resources in the Heritage Centre, but also from the many Sabans who were kind enough to review and comment on the design.
“We were looking for something unique, something that would stand out and act as an eye-catcher for the Heritage Center,” said Saba Archeological Research Center SABARC Treasurer Vito Charles, who together with Chairman Jay Haviser and Secretary Peter Johnson forms the SABARC board.
Charles explained that the idea for a mural actually came from archaeologists Corinne Hofman and Menno Hoogland during their recent visit to Saba. Hofman and Hoogland have many years of experience of archaeological research in Saba and throughout the Caribbean. Borque, who is well-known for painting the mural at Fort Bay harbour and at Eugenius Johnson Center, completed the mural within one week.
The Heritage Center has a mission to preserve, document and disseminate information about Saba’s heritage. The Saba people and their knowledge about heritage play an important role in this. “We want to do this by engaging people to tell us what they consider to be Saba’s heritage,” said Charles, who announced that in a few months a new research and heritage coordinator will be coming to the island who will primarily engage with the population to gather and preserve information on Saba’s rich history.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/mural-beautifies-entrance-side-saba-heritage-center
It’s just like the desacreting of the discovered slave ship near Surinam, where white archeologists disturb the graves of hundreds of murdered enslaved. And just because they’ve found a black archeologist who was willing to participate, all was so-called legitimate.
Now look again at the photo above: the excuse-black-man has the same function.
You Friday, me Master….
The Saba Government shows very well how they deal with the history of Transatlantic Slave Trade.
For them this is something of another planet, not to be worried about. And if you kick out all black people, the problem solves itself.
For some this is a clear message, and apparently this Saban government underlines this:
“Dear white people, we apologize that we, black people, have disturbed your history by us being enslaved for ‘some’ time. We understand that you wish to continue your business as usual, and that us telling about a bloody history is not in the interest of those who profit from tourism. The supremacy of the white people is something that has to be shown as much as possible in murals. We, black people of the Caribbean islands, will therefore forget our history, forget all that has been done to us, and we will obey you, as you demand”.
Hello! Is someone awake over there?!
It is so typical the product of white colonial archeologists like Haviser.
All one happy multicultural family, together working under thetropical sun.
No visual proof of the murders by the slavers on Saba, no pictures of the tortures, the rapes, and the centuries of injustice. No picture of killed native americans, while the Archivo General de Indias in Spain gives a lot of evidence of this. Only two “happy indians” in a canoe. No slave ship, but dancing children.
As seen on Statia and St. Martin, the Dutch and other western archeologists are experienced in forgery of the history. Especially if it concerns non-white people. The goal justifies the means.
Nothing was intended to be confronting or polarizimg.