The World Museum of Rotterdam, Holland featured an exposition titled “The Legacy of Slavery” for one year from November of 2003 to 2004. It was a cooperative effort by curators and historians in Holland, Curaçao,  and Suriname, which all contributed artifacts and documents of the slave trade in Holland, Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles.

Beginning in July of 2006, Curaçao hosted the exposition at Banda Bou Landhuis Groot Santa Martha in Soto, and historians have kindly loaned the Curaçao, materials to a group from Aruba that will put it on public display at the Aruba National Archives beginning on March 1.

Leading this group is Margriet Lee, Project Coordinator, and Shakira Croes of the Aruba National Archives. Felix de Rooy, a Curaçao native organized the Dutch and Curaçao exhibition, which was designed by Rene Wissink, and De Rooy is contributing to the Aruba exposition that will open in March along with Minerva Lauffer and Thirso Marta of Curaçao. On Wednesday evening, organizers met with a number of Aruban artists who answered the call to interpret and contribute their work regarding “The Legacy of Slavery” in the Dutch Caribbean.

Evelino Fingal, designer of Aruba’s money, is the chief designer of the exposition on Aruba. Contributing artists are Gerda Faber, Timothy Charles, Sherry Douglas, Stanley Kuiperi, Caresse Issings, Vera Croes, Danilo Geerman, Maria Teresa Madariaga, Munye Oduber-Winklaar, Julie Merencia, Ryan Oduber, Alydia Wever, Belinda de Veer, Ruurd van der Meulen, Rina Frank, Irene Peterson, Juancho Dijkhoff, Eefje van der Straten, Osaira Muyale, Carmen Geerman and Vanessa Paulina.

Original organizers of the exposition felt that the history of slavery, shared by all inhabitants of the Netherlands Antilles, Surinam and the Netherlands, is still not sufficiently recognized and passed on to succeeding generations, and that it is vital to “reveal the past to gain strength.” Although Aruba has not been thought to be included among the islands that harbored slavery, according to historian Luc Alofs, it had its own, albeit small, slave population.

The exposition and education regarding slavery on Aruba and other territories of the Dutch Kingdom will be a cooperative effort involving personnel of the National Library of Aruba, Department of Culture, and Pedagogical Institute of Aruba (IPA) in San Nicolas. IPA is starting an informative program for the four months that the slavery exposition will be on display, which includes study materials and visiting lecturers for the fifth and sixth grades of Aruba’s primary schools.

The exposition includes hundreds of artifacts, which are testimonies of slavery in the Dutch Kingdom, such as original illustrations, videos of recollections by the descendents of slaves, mannequins dressed in the slave garb of Curaçao, and the treasure of maroon slaves, those that managed to run away. All the history and information regarding the materials will be displayed in Dutch, Papiamento and English, so as to inform and enlighten all interested parties regarding this important aspect of the history of Aruba and Curaçao.

Source: The News