(Un)Interrupted Histories, Continuous Feeling: Indigenous Identity Formation and Notions of Heritage in the Southeastern Caribbean

Abstract

Identity politics and heritage lie at the crux of many social struggles on the global stage today. These concerns expose a key unanswered question at the heart of Heritage Studies: What is the relationship between heritage and identity? This PhD project contributes to this global discussion by studying and comparing the connection between heritage and identity formation among three Indigenous groups in the context of more than 500 years of colonialism in the Caribbean. The work asks: What is the relationship between heritage and Indigenous identity in the Southeastern Caribbean? The Caribbean region is a vibrant cultural patchwork whose complicated history has led to intricate identity formation processes. European arrival in 1492 had an immense impact on forming the current Caribbean, introducing new peoples, cultures, economies, and power structures. Yet the region is vast, and past over-generalisations have only served to overlook areas like the Southeastern Caribbean. Three islands and their Indigenous communities have participated in this research: the Guaiquerí of Margarita, the Caquetío on Bonaire, and various groups, including the Santa Rosa First People’s Community, on Trinidad. The three have traversed distinct colonial histories despite sharing similar pre-colonial trajectories. Today, they belong to different socio-economic and political spheres: Bonaire, a Special Municipality of the Caribbean Netherlands; Margarita, a part of Nueva Esparta State, Venezuela, and Trinidad, paired in its nation-state with Tobago. The three islands provide an ideal scenario for comparison, showing how differences and similarities throughout colonial and post-colonial processes have impacted present heritage-identity relationships and how Indigenous peoples from the three islands have dealt with and overcome these. Across the three islands, interview data, heritage surveys, and historical analysis provide a broad spectrum of data, equipping the researcher—and the reader—with a detailed understanding of the region and its intricacies. In addition, due to adaptations motivated by COVID-19, an innovative art-contest data-collection method is intermeshed into the work, contributing a novel methodological approach while bringing unprecedented insights into how heritage/identity is formulated and negotiated in the specific colonial contexts surrounding the three Indigenous groups. The PhD project isolates the relationships heritage has had with the disciplines of archaeology and history, recasting these onto the data resulting from interviews and art contests. The research identifies how a series of identifying aspects noted by interviewees are felt and managed locally, highlighting the Virgen del Valle in Margarita, the La Venezuela Statue in Trinidad, and Ceramic Plaques in Bonaire as three critical case studies that reveal a unique relationship between heritage and identity in the Southeastern Caribbean. As a result of the historical transformations in the heritage-identity relationship, identity in the three islands is often expressed as only a feeling. This notion developed in the final chapter is used to critique present conceptions of cultural change, authenticity, and the intangible/tangible dichotomy, essential questions for Heritage studies.