From Monument to VR: Sint Eustatius Reinvents Heritage Experience

For Raimie Richardson, centralizing information and sharing it was a reason to think about digitizing heritage. First, it had to be determined what could be done on the island itself to preserve heritage and where help was needed. It quickly became apparent that both the capacity and sustainability of certain projects were major challenges. "In the past, local sites had signs with a lot of text that could not withstand the test of time, eroded, and cost a lot of money to repair," says Richardson.

Digitization Brings Heritage Closer to Statians

Due to the colonial landscape of Sint Eustatius, residents are often inclined not to notice monuments anymore, but combining the physical with the digital places it in a new perspective, says Richardson. Also, because Sint Eustatius is in a hurricane-prone area susceptible to various natural disasters, digitization was a good solution. This led to the idea of placing archaeological and monument markers, a red obelisk in the ground with a QR code on it.

Because monuments in Sint Eustatius are often private homes, this project brought the monuments closer to the people. “Everyone thought wow, this is cool. They became very excited to learn and discover more about digital heritage,” he says.

Accessible Through Virtual Reality

When digitizing the stories of Ishmael Berkel and the Berkel Family Museum (opens in new tab), virtual reality (VR) was used. Jaap Vreeling, who led the VR project, convinced the 90-year-old Ishmael to participate for future generations. “What makes it so special is that it provides a different perspective on digitization. Often, people only see documents, archives, slave registers, and emancipation registers. But what about artifacts and stories of people who are still alive? In this case, you see Mr. Berkel walking through his family’s house and showing artifacts,” explains Richardson.

With a VR headset, visitors don’t need to physically be on Sint Eustatius but can still experience the island’s history and culture. “This also creates a form of virtual tourism through heritage.” According to Richardson, the intention is to do this with other monuments as well, so people can walk through the city, open doors they might not have access to, and see documents and touch artifacts.

Collaboration

The biggest challenges in these projects were funding and collaboration, explains Richardson: "Now that we’ve been working on this for longer, we realize we need to collaborate. This is cheaper and more cost-effective. This way, we can collaborate with other islands within the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. Our histories are often intertwined, and it helps to fill in the puzzles we think we’re missing."

Statian Heritage for Statians

The future of Sint Eustatius in terms of digitization involves pushing its own stories, says the heritage inspector: "It comes from the island itself and is not given to us or imposed on us. That allows us to create a different story. Our own story through oral history, music, recipes from our grandparents, and old handwritten letters. This also gave rise to the idea of a heritage magazine to provide Statians and Statian history with their own platform."

For now, the magazine is only available in print, but Richardson hopes to digitize and expand it in the future together with other Caribbean islands. “Often, magazines are not really about us or for us. The idea is to have a magazine about Statian heritage, not just the current heritage but also intangible heritage. And then hopefully expand it to Caribbean heritage. This way, you create something living through digitization; it ensures that tangible and intangible heritage lives on even after these monuments and the people are gone,” says Richardson.

Author: Melissa Stamper