Visit of the Director General of Kingdom Relations in a box commemorating and compensating for past slavery

This visit should be seen as part of the visit of three state secretaries who visited Aruba and ANA in the last three months, to learn more about the digitalization project and also to learn more about Aruba’s history related to slavery in particular. So in November of last year, ANA had a visit from a nurse. Alexandra van Huffelen, state secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kingdom Relations, followed up with Mr. Eric van den Burg, secretary of the Ministry of Justice’s stadium in Veiligheid on 19 December, while in Aruba for the apology speech by Dutch Prime Minister, Mr. Mark Rutte. Then in January of this year he continued his visit. Gunaylu, state secretary of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science where the conversation was about the possible areas of cooperation in the Kingdom and the possibilities that the cooperation that has already begun in Aruba between different instances can be included in this.

On this occasion the Dutch government, fully aware of what the ANA was implementing, which was digitization and in turn implementing a system to make writings from our colonial archives readable in our typography today and at the same time accessible with its search methods, gave an idea of what it wanted to contribute to this process, so as to sustain and accelerate this process. In this way, in view of the 160th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, on July 1, 2023, more people, both scientists/researchers and descendants of those who were enslaved or who also owned slaves, can have access to information about their past. What is interesting about this is that what is offered here, through the platform of the Aruba Collection, which was created, through cooperation between the National Library (BNA), UNOCA and ANA, it is also made accessible online not only to our people here in Aruba, but to the whole Kingdom and the world. Those who are interested can visit this platform through the website coleccion.aw where they can search through all the collections of different instances meanwhile, both local, and Dutch that are part of this beautiful project.
Mr. Lapperre’s visit was in the context of talks that began in February between the Netherlands and the Dutch Caribbean and South Africa on the topic of dispensation, commemoration and compensation. This confirmed part of what the Netherlands had committed itself to, namely support for ANA to continue with the handwritten text recognition (HTR) process, whereby after the documents are digitized, they are analyzed and sent to the University of Innsbruck, Austria for processing.

We also discussed possible areas of cooperation, both in terms of funds available as part of the compensation and exchange of colonial archives in the Netherlands in digital form so that they can come to Aruba and we can continue the work to continue to get more out of our history and colonial past. Aruba had already made the gesture of surrendering in January. Use a set of digital archives (with HTR) from Aruba that was clear. ANA’s thinking in this case is that colonial archives, whether in Aruba, the Netherlands, Corsica or other territories are one that is of a shared history. And this also makes archives part of our shared cultural heritage that cannot be separated.

ANA also took the opportunity, together with those of BNA, UNOCA and the Aruba Museums Foundation (FMA), to address the situation of the facilities that contain the bulk of our cultural heritage as well as their location. Most of our cultural heritage does not find itself in proper facilities to preserve it, while also, in the context of rising sea levels, many of them are at risk of being affected, not to mention in the event of bad weather that could also be devastating to them.
On this occasion, a White Paper was delivered to Mr. The latter not only illustrates the cooperation between the different agencies, but also sees the collection.aw as a model that can be used for the Dutch Caribbean, as well as the Caribbean in general and regions that do not have sufficient means to realize digitalization and online accessibility. And the White Paper also illustrates that from this digital cooperation of the different agencies also emerges the idea of cooperation for a multifunctional and high-level common facility for all agencies in the field of cultural and historical heritage. So a center where this cultural heritage sector can ensure the safe storage of our national collections and where there can also be a combination of tasks and teams, as well as knowledge and expertise.