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On May 11th 2023 three students of archaeology, Marianny Aguasvivas , Marloes Attema, and Willow Dawson, visited International School Leiden to give a lesson about the Caribbean and her Archaeology. The lesson was followed by a visit to the exhibition on May 17th 2023. One of the project and exhibition´s aims is to increase the historical awareness of the Caribbean region in the Netherlands by engaging with the general public, Caribbean diaspora, but also with the local schools.   Caribbean Ties visits the International School In the morning of May 11th we, Marianny, Marloes and Willow, visited  International School Leiden at the Van Vollenhovenkade street in Leiden. We prepared a presentation, multiple short exercises and brought in various archaeological objects to help clarify the lesson about the Caribbean. We presented in front of a group of around 30 international children from various ages.  We started the lesson by asking the children what they already knew about the Caribbean. The children had a lot of prior knowledge of the area and were eager to share their stories or little fun facts they knew about the area. The children’s stories sparked enthusiasm amongst one another and made them eager to learn more about the Caribbean.  The lesson was continued by giving the children a basic overview of the Caribbean. We explained the geographic location of the Caribbean, the flora and fauna, and  the current lifestyle of the Caribbean inhabitants. We showed the children the local cuisine. They also listened to different music numbers which originate in the Caribbean and local dances were displayed. In between the different segments of the presentation, we gave the children small exercises relating to the different subjects that were shown. The children had to show where the Caribbean is located on the world map, for example. After the children identified a location, we talked about the geographic area of that part of the Caribbean.  After giving a broad overview of present-day Caribbean, we explained the history of the Caribbean to the children in a simple to understand way. We started by telling the kids about the first inhabitants of the islands and continued our way through history to the colonization of the Caribbean islands up to the modern times.  The lesson continued with a lesson about Archaeology. We explained to the children that in archaeology we try to contribute to the stories the past, which can be done through multiple methods and on different locations in the world. We showed the children photos of archaeological projects in the Caribbean carried out by the university of Leiden. On the basis of these photos we explained what archaeologists do at the excavations and how an excavation works. We showed the children replicas of archaeological objects found in the Caribbean. They were amazed by the objects and were excited to hold them and to take a closer look at them.  We continued the lesson with an explanation of the exhibition and telling the children what they could expect when they would visit the exhibition for themselves the week after the lesson. The lesson ended with a final exercise: The children were allowed to choose a drawing of one of the objects from the exhibition and color them in using coloring pencils.  The International School visit the exhibition A week later, on May 17th 2023, the group children of the International School Leiden came to visit the exhibition. The visit had a duration of two and a half hours and consisted out of a tour of the exhibition and corresponding activities. When the group arrived, the children got a warm welcome by Marianny. She explained what the children could expect from their visit and answered any prior questions. After her welcome word she gave the group a tour through the exhibition, engaging the children by asking them questions and explaining the exhibition in simpler words. After the exhibition the group was divided into three smaller groups. The students had organized three different stations were the children could participate in activities: Caribbean games, body painting Caribbean symbols and a skeleton puzzle. The three groups switched stations after twenty minutes to participate in the next activity.  The Caribbean games were played outside in the garden of the old library of the university, the ‘Oude UB’. Two games were organized here, which are often played by Caribbean children: “Duck, Duck, Goose” and “ 1, 2 ,3 Mariposita linda es”. The weather was beautiful outside and the kids enjoyed releasing some energy by playing the games. Inside of the building the children could paint Caribbean symbols on their hands or arms using body paint. They were shown different kind of symbols, and one of us explained the meaning behind these symbols. Apart from that, the children could participate in puzzling at the skeleton puzzle station. They had to rearrange the different bones of the human skeleton and could color them in.  After the three activities the children had a small break and continued on with the last activity of the day: pottery making. The children were handed a piece of clay and were allowed to either recreate one of the objects of the exhibition in clay or design something completely different. Unfortunately the pottery making was the final activity of the day, ending the visit. The kids enjoyed the lesson and the exhibition. We thanked the group for coming by and waved them goodbye as they returned back to their school.      

Wednesday 8th March, Caribbean Ties opened at the Old University Library (Oude UB) in Leiden University. The exhibition will be available to the public free of charge Mon-Fri 9:00-18:00 until the 20th May.  The Caribbean Ties exhibit is one of the major outcomes of the Nexus 1492 project: New world encounters in a globalizing world supported by the European Research Council between 2013 and 2019. The project and the exhibit aim at contributing to a novel narrative on Caribbean Indigenous history and addresses the impacts of colonial invasion, exploitation, and the transformation on Caribbean cultures and societies. The exhibit seeks to increase the historical consciousness, protection, and safeguarding of the tangible and intangible heritage of the Caribbean region. Caribbean Ties. Connected people, then and now is an international exhibition that reflects the complex diversity that existed in the Caribbean archipelago before 1492. This cultural diversity remains a vibrant reality today. Combining local, regional, and global perspectives, the Caribbean Ties exhibit focuses on the connections between past and present Indigenous cultures and the current multi-ethnic communities in the Caribbean, and as such explores the living and current impact of Indigenous heritage. This version of the exhibition is a collaboration between the Kunstcommissie Oude UB (Judith de Wilde, Yvonne Leunisse and Linda van Putten) and the CaribTrails project (Prof. dr. Corinne Hofman, Marianny Aguasvivas, Drs. Marlena Antczak and Menno Hoogland) with the help from the Diversity office from Leiden University, the Latin American and Caribbean region group, and the Centre for Indigenous Americas studies. The students from the faculty of Archaeology Jasper Meijer, Georg Mueller, Willow Dawson and Kai Tjong-Ayong worked to adapt the exhibition to the context of the Oude UB by creating additional pannels and helping with the set up.  The exhibition was inaugurated with speeches by Judith de Wilde (Kunstcommissie Oude UB), Prof. mr. Annetje Ottow (President of the Executive Board), Prof. dr. Corinne Hofman (Professor of Archaeology of the Caribbean), H.E. Dr. Juan Bautista Durán (Ambassador of the Dominican Republic), Frans Malajuwara (Member of the Indigenous Community of Suriname) and Irvince Nanichi Auguiste (Former chief of the Kalinago Territory in Dominica).  The students currently doing the Public Engagement and Museum education internship at the faculty of Archaeology (Marloes Attema, Leo Kalajian,Suze van der Salm, Katiebeth Gaynor and Clara le Moigne) are preparing the Program for the exhibition activities during the next two months. The plan is to engage with the general public, local schools and the Caribbean diaspora in the Netherlands. They will be working closely with artists and members of the Caribbean diaspora to contribute to the visibilisation and safeguarding of Caribbean tangible and intangible heritage.  

This new digital platform brings Caribbean Ties to an online environment, developed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The objective of this virtual edition of Caribbean Ties is to continue to share and expand knowledge about Caribbean Indigenous heritage with finds, facts, and stories from everyone who wants to contribute.In our session Co-creating a socially-distanced museum experience in a pandemic: Virtual Caribbean Ties. Connected people, then and now (online) a conversation was had with heritage and archaeology professionals - and Virtual Caribbean Ties team members - Dr. Jorge Ulloa Hung (INTEC), Dr. Winston Phulgence (SLAHS), Katarina Jacobson (Musée Edgar Clerq), Irvince Auguiste (Kalinago Territory), Kevin Farmer (Barbados Museum), and Ashleigh Morris (National Trust of Trinidad & Tobago) about the value and potentials of this new and exciting platform.A very big thank you to everyone who has worked to realize the launch of this platform today. A special thank you goes out to all of the BA and MA students at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, who wrote terrific texts about Caribbean archaeological artefacts and sites, which are included (or will be in the near future) on this website. Thank you to all the researchers who lent their expertise and provided feedback on the texts. Thank you to the team for your feedback on this platform in the development leading up to the launch of this website.