Table Of ContentArchiving Caribbean Identity
Archiving Caribbean Identity highlights the “Caribbeanization” of archives in
the region, considering what those archives could include in the future and
exploring the potential for new records in new formats.
Interpreting records in the broadest sense, the 15 chapters in this volume
explore a wide variety of records that represent new archival interpretations. The
book is split into two parts, with the frst part focusing on record forms that are
not generally considered “archival” in traditional Western practice. The second
part explores more “traditional” archival collections and demonstrates how these
collections are analysed and presented from the perspective of Caribbean peoples.
As a whole, the volume suggests how colonial records can be repurposed to surface
Caribbean narratives. Refecting on the unique challenges faced by developing
countries as they approach their archives, the volume considers how to identify
and archive records in the forms and formats that refect the postcolonial and
decolonized Caribbean, how to build an archive of the people that documents
contemporary society and refects C aribbean memory, and how to repurpose the
colonial archives so that they assist the Caribbean in reclaiming its history.
Archiving Caribbean Identity demonstrates how non-textual cultural traces
function as archival records and how folk-centred perspectives disrupt
c onventional understandings of records. The book should thus be of interest
to academics and students engaged in the study of archives, memory, culture,
history, sociology, and the colonial and postcolonial experience.
John A. Aarons, now retired, was Executive Director of the National Library
of Jamaica (1992–2002), Government Archivist of Jamaica (2002–2008), and
University Archivist of the University of the West Indies (2009–2014).
Jeannette A. Bastian is Emerita Professor at Simmons University. She is
c urrently an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Library and Information
at the University of the West Indies.
Stanley H. Grifn is Deputy Dean, Undergraduate Matters (Humanities), and
Lecturer in Archival and Information Studies in the Faculty of H umanities and
Education, Department of Library and Information Studies, at the University
of the West Indies, Mona Jamaica.
Routledge Studies in Archives
Series Editor: James Lowry
The following list includes only the most-recent titles to publish within the
series. A list of the full catalogue of titles is available at: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Studies-in-Archives/book-series/RSARCH
Archives, Recordkeeping and Social Justice
Edited by David A. Wallace, Wendy M. Duff, Renée Saucier,
and Andrew Flinn
Producing the Archival Body
Jamie A. Lee
Ghosts of Archive
Deconstructive Intersectionality and Praxis
Verne Harris
Urgent Archives
Enacting Liberatory Memory Work
Michelle Caswell
Archiving Caribbean Identity
Records, Community, and Memory
Edited by John A. Aarons, Jeannette A. Bastian, and Stanley H. Griffin
Exhibiting the Archive
Space, Encounter, and Experience
Peter Lester
Archiving Caribbean Identity
Records, Community, and Memory
Edited by John A. Aarons,
Jeannette A. Bastian, and
Stanley H. Griffin
First published 2022
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, John A. Aarons, Jeannette
A. Bastian, and Stanley H. Griffin; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of John A. Aarons, Jeannette A. Bastian, and Stanley H.
Griffin to be identified as the authors of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-61509-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-61511-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-10529-9 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003105299
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of Figures vii
Routledge Studies in Archives viii
List of Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction 1
JOHN A. AARONS, JEANNETTE A. BASTIAN, AND STANLEY H. GRIFFIN
PART I
Tangible and Intangible Formats 15
1 Soca and Collective Memory: Savannah Grass as an
Archive of Carnival 17
KAI BARRATT
2 Jamaica Twitter as a Repository for Documenting
Memory and Social Resistance: Listening to the
“Articulate Minority” 30
NORMAN MALCOLM
3 Singing Our Caribbean Identity: Programming the
UWI, Mona Festival of the Nine Lessons With Carols 38
SHAWN R.A. WRIGHT
4 Archives “Cast in Stone”: Memorials as Memory 49
ELSIE E. AARONS
5 Landscape as Record: Archiving the Antigua
Recreation Ground 64
STEPHEN BUTTERS
vi Contents
6 Concert Dance in Barbados as Archive: Dancing the
National Narratives 79
JOHN HUNTE
7 Remembering an Art Exhibit: The Face of Jamaica, 1963–1964 97
MONIQUE BARNETT-DAVIDSON
8 Traditional and New Record Sources in
Geointerpretive Methods for Reconstructing
Biophysical History: Whither Withywood 108
THERA EDWARDS AND EDWARD ROBINSON
PART II
Collections Through a Caribbean Lens 129
9 Resistance in/and the Pre-Emancipation Archives 131
TONIA SUTHERLAND, LINDA STURTZ, AND PAULETTE KERR
10 Postcolonial Philately as Memory and History:
Stamping a New Identity for Trinidad and Tobago 150
DESARAY PIVOTT-NOLAN
11 Recasting Jamaican Sculptor Ronald Moody
(1900–1984): An Archival Homecoming 170
EGO AHAIWE SOWINSKI
12 St. Lucian Memory and Identity Through the Eyes
of John Robert Lee 183
ANTONIA CHARLEMAGNE-MARSHALL
13 Crop Over and Carnival in the Archives of Barbados
and Trinidad and Tobago 199
ALLISON O. RAMSAY
14 Ecclesiastical Records as Sources of Social History:
The Anglican Church of Trinidad and Tobago 213
JANELLE DUKE
15 Erasure and Retention in Jamaica’s Ofcial Memory:
The Case of the Disappearing Telegrams 227
JAMES ROBERTSON
Index 240
Figures
8.1 Location of Carlisle Bay. Old Parish of Vere shown as
grey-shaded area 109
8.2 Hard brick structure associated with remains of wharf/port
at Carlisle Bay. Left: as captured by terrestrial laser scan.
Right: as captured with a digital camera 111
8.3 Aerial photos acquired roughly a decade apart between
1941 and 1971 showing changes to Carlisle Bay coastline 113
8.4 Main sources of evidence used in reconstruction 114
8.5 Stratigraphy of maps, aerial photographs, and satellite imagery 115
8.6 1961 aerial photograph with boundary of Carlisle Estate
and course of the Rio Minho from plan done by Greene
in 1818 superimposed as a white line 116
8.7 1953 aerial photo showing submerged and emergent
structures of the port and fort 118
8.8 Left: Fort Augusta in 1961. Right: Fort and Port at Carlisle
Bay 1953 118
8.9 Section of a plan of Carlisle Estate prepared in 1879 showing
“Old Fort and Pusey Hall Estate Wharf” 119
8.10 Google Earth images of Carlisle Bay 2003, 2013, and 2018 120
8.11 Historical shoreline recession at Carlisle Bay obtained from
measurements of distance of Old House relative to shoreline
on plans, aerial photographs, and satellite imagery 121
8.12 Changes in the meander of the Rio Minho – 2019 Sentinel
imagery, 1941 aerial photo, and 1879 plan 122
10.1 1990 – Birds of Trinidad and Tobago 156
10.2 1986 – Congratulations 60th birthday to your Majesty 158
10.3 1977 – Inauguration of a Republic 159
10.4 1975 – Dr Pawan 160
10.5 1985 – Decade for women 161
10.6 1976 – Carnival 162
10.7 The Parang 163
10.8 1994 – Steelpan Series II 163
10.9 1994 – Lord Kitchener 164
10.10 1973 – Anniversaries 165
Routledge Studies in Archives
Routledge Studies in Archives publishes new research in archival studies.
Recognizing the imperative for archival work in support of memory, identity
construction, social justice, accountability, legal rights, and historical under-
standing, the series extends the disciplinary boundaries of archival studies. The
works in this series illustrate how archival studies intersects with the concerns
and methods of, and is increasingly intellectually in conversation with, other
felds.
Bringing together scholarship from diverse academic and cultural traditions
and presenting the work of emerging and established scholars side by side, the
series promotes the exploration of the intellectual history of archival science,
the internationalization of archival discourse, and the building of new archival
theory. It sees the archival in personal, economic, and political activity; histori-
cally and digitally situated cultures; subcultures and movements; technical and
socio-technical systems; technological and infrastructural developments; and in
many other places.
Archival studies brings a historical perspective and unique expertise in
records creation, management and sustainability to questions, problems and
data challenges that lie at the heart of our knowledge about and ability to tackle
some of the most difcult dilemmas facing the world today, such as climate
change, mass migration, and disinformation. Routledge Studies in Archives is a
platform for this work.
Series Editor: James Lowry
Contributors
Elsie E. Aarons, a librarian, worked as Manager of Technical Information
Services of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (1980–2000). She also
served as an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Library and Information
Studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Jamaica between
2001 and 2008, teaching the course Special Libraries and Information Man-
agement. Very involved in church activities, she worked for 15 years with the
Anglican Church, serving as the administrator at St. Andrew Parish Church
(2000–2005) and secretary/personal assistant to the Bishop of Kingston
(2005–2015). In retirement, she pursues her many interests, including gene-
alogy, for which she has developed an extensive family history. She holds
a BSc in geology and geography (1972), a postgraduate diploma in library
studies (1976), and an MA in theology (1997), all from the UWI, Mona.
John A. Aarons, an archivist and librarian, worked at the Jamaica Archives
as assistant archivist from 1972 to 1976 and as government archivist from
2002 to 2008. Between 1977 and 2002 he worked at the National Library
of Jamaica serving as the executive director from 1992 to 2002. He was
appointed university archivist at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in
2009 and served until his retirement in 2014, although he continued until
2018 as an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Library and Information
Studies at UWI, Mona, where he was involved in the development and
teaching of the archives and records management programme. In retirement,
he continues to research and write and serves as the Honorary Archivist of
the Anglican Church in Jamaica. He holds a BA (Hons.) in history, post-
graduate diplomas in both archives and librarianship, and an MA in heritage
studies.
Kai Barratt is a lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at
the University of Technology, Jamaica. Her research focuses on the perfor-
mances of female soca artistes on and of the stage. Another aspect of her
research includes exploring social media platforms as a space for carnival
representations. She also looks at the extension of the Trinidad-style carnival
to other sites in the Caribbean. Some of her writings have been published in
