‘Building on the Power of the Past’ the production and politics of heritage on a Dutch Caribbean Island

Abstract

Lying off the coast of Venezuela in a prime 'sun, sea, and sand' location, Curaçao is a popular tourist destination with a complex past. Since its colonisation by the Dutch in 1634, it has seen slavery, abolition, a civil rights movement, industrialisation, and severe environmental damage. All the while it has served as an exotic escape for wealthy travellers. In 2010, a high-profile European jazz festival came to the island and drew a large, international crowd. The success of this first Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival (CNSJF) sparked a new commercial strategy by the Curaçao Tourist Board to grow the industry and in recent years, more events began to spring up on the island. One of these was Punda Jazz Vibes, which is a free event run by local residents (by contrast, CNSJF tickets cost $195 per night). This paper examines the discourses that surround and connect these events, with special focus on the production and mediation of cultural heritage in the wider tourism infrastructure that supports them. We demonstrate the political nature of heritage production on Curaçao and show how the festivals are implicated in a long history of colonial and postcolonial exploitation, thus questioning the social impact of the tourism industry at large.

A research Agenda for heritage planning. Perspectives from Europe A research Agenda for heritage planning. Perspectives from Europe , edited by Eva Stegmeijer and Loes Veldpaus, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021, xxvi + 256 pp., $147,00 (hardback), $47,00 (paperback), ISBN: 978-1-78897-462-2, Open Access (ebk), ISBN: 978-1-78897-463-9

“…As part of their study, the CHIME team interviewed audiences, organizers and volunteers in order to get a sense of the relationship between music and place, of the feeling of belonging among returning fans, and to develop insights into the tensions at play between the festival experience and the rural heritage location. The second case study included an investigation into tourism and the country's postcolonial history through the North Sea Jazz satellite festival in Curacao (Aggett 2016). In addition to festival case studies, the Dutch team also produced a travelling exhibition of Dutch festivals, working in collaboration with the Dutch Jazz Archive (Rusch 2017).…”

Is colonial heritage negative or not so much? Debating heritage discourses and selective interpretation of Kulangsu, China

“…When people from the developed countries engage in tourism, they preclude the previously colonised people from constructing their own national identity, and as such, they have been criticised for engendering a perpetual ideology of colonialism (Park 2016 ). Some empirical studies have come from this vein to reflect on the neo-colonisation by tourists and developers from previously colonising nations in ways of underrepresenting the colonial past associated with the colonial heritage (e.g., Aggett and van de Leur 2020 ; Nelson 2020 ; Fortenberry 2021 ).…”

Socio-Economic Development, Globalization and the Need for Heritage Policy in Qatar: Case Study

“…The need to reserve cultural heritage remains to be of great concern worldwide, it is a critical duty of all nations. The UNESCO upholds heritage protection as a universal issue (Aggett & Van De Leur, 2020). In 2013, UNESCO designated Al-Zubara, "the Pearl of the Past" Qatar's largest heritage site, as a World Heritage Site, which gives the area a significant value.…”

“…In 2013, UNESCO designated Al-Zubara, "the Pearl of the Past" Qatar's largest heritage site, as a World Heritage Site, which gives the area a significant value. Such designation and heritage protection works to augment national pride and strengthen a sense of local community (Aggett & Van De Leur, 2020). What cultural heritage means to Qatari authorities is preserving Qatar's national heritage and enhancing Arab and Islamic values and Identify (Planning and Statistics Authority, 2020).…”