En Route to Curaçao

It has been a long time coming, but I'm back. For the past year and I half I have been back, living on my island, Curaçao. My mother was raised here, born in Surinam, but somehow it has always been this island that I felt in my blood rather than my Surinamese roots. So once again I am back, "happier than a pig in shit..."

I was born in Amsterdam, and raised in different parts of the Netherlands. Castricum, and then Tilburg, to be precise. As a child I was absolutely enchanted with the beach, the dunes and the woods of Castricum. Being a teenager in Tilburg was a bit tougher. So as soon as I graduated highschool I was back in Amsterdam, my first love. I love this small country, this former colonizing nation with its bricks, bicycles, and winters that usually last too long.


But that did not keep me from becoming homesick for Curaçao. One holiday was all it took, at age five. My second love. All the way through elementary school, the lyceum, the Free University of Amsterdam, I was homesick for Curaçao. Former colony with its iguanas, pan seiku and absolutely never ending summers.

Once I got older I found my way to the island more easily. Several times I lived on the island, worked on the island, loved the island, made it my own. But I always left. I wanted to do something with the island's colonial heritage. My dream was - is - to research how to make the painful parts of this heritage less painful, and the beautiful parts more joyful and empowering. But after my first and second time living on the island I realised that my Dutch Masters Degree did not provide me with the knowledge and tools that I needed. I drew too many blanks.

In 2007 I was accepted into graduate school at Florida International University, in Miami. In 2003 I had obtained my MA in Cultural Anthropology, my third big love. Now I returned to University to complete a PhD in Anthropology. Four years of South Beach, Brickel, Little Havana, FIU South Campus, Dolphin Highway; it was a great adventure.

At FIU I learned about the intricacies of race relations and racism, colonialism, African Diaspora, decolonization, creolization and silenced histories. Gradschool was more demanding than a pregnant woman, but it yielded all that I had looked for.

So here I am. I'm back, but this time without suitcases on the ready and plans to leave. I'm staying. With my brand new Warwarú ImageNation Foundation, which is geared at examining and addressing colonial heritage in all its many forms. And with a documentary project Sombra di Koló that examines how people experience race in Curaçao today. Stay tuned. It's gonna be good...