• Title: Dominica as a Centre of Excellence for the Preservation & Celebration of the Creole Culture through Language, the Arts and its indigenous Kalinagos
• Funding Programme: AHRC Global Challenges Research Fund
• Partners: University of Bedfordshire (Lead partner, UK), University of the West Indies (Barbados), Committee for the Study of Creole (KEK), the Cultural Division and the National Cultural Council
• Duration of the Project: 36 months
• AHRC Co-financing: £53,426
• Start Date: 1st January 2018

About Creolization

Creole culture includes the diverse traditions of indigenous people: language, dress, folklore, music, performing arts, cuisine, architecture and property rights, expressing a rich multi-dimensional heritage. At the core, Creole Culture represents rich, historical and multi-ethnic elements. This unique heritage links people across the globe through a long colonial history and evolving traditions.

The concepts of ‘creolization’ and ‘creole societies’ are fundamental to understanding the cultural changes in the Caribbean which emerged during the colonial period. Seminal works suggest that Afro-Creole culture has its roots in African, East Indian, Indigenous American and European heritage elements. More recent work demonstrates that this heritage has now become a pivotal part of the process of nation-building.

Many small creole-speaking countries, particularly island economies, now embrace their “creoleness” as a key strategy for tourism development and as promoting platforms for the advancement of heritage and cultural tourism through the performing arts and event tourism. For example Dominica’s World Creole Festivals and annual independence celebrations showcase its Kreyol language, food, arts, dance and fashion. However, some elements of creole heritage are not fully appreciated and celebrated and arguably their value could be better exploited on the international market.

Aims and Objectives

This networking project brings together research in:

• Developing a knowledge base on creole heritage and cultural advocacy
• Principles and practices for advancing national policy on promoting of creole heritage and culture
• Branding and packaging creole performing arts for the international market
• Evaluating production and delivery of international creole festivals
• Legislating Creole language as a national asset
• Repositioning indigenous culture and language as intangible cultural heritage
• Advancing creative indigenous industries
• Developing frameworks for safeguarding creole Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)
• Best practice models for adopting/implementing the UNESCO convention for Intangible Culture Heritage (ICH)

The pictures below show Dr Violet Cuffy and the Dominica Country Conference 2019 attendees:

Outputs

The International Creole Research Network (TICERN) is open to researchers across the world from Caribbean to Seychelles, Mauritius, Nigeria to the Philippines pursuing research in Creole cultures. It has submitted a UNESCO Chairs / UNITWIN Networks Consultation Report [PDF] Form: under the III World Higher Education Conference (WHEC 2021) with representation from United Kingdom, Commonwealth of Dominica, Haiti, Seychelles, Réunion Island, Mauritius, St Lucia, Trinidad, Germany, and Sri Lanka.

The report puts the urgent need for a shift of mind-set and knowledge advancement in indigenous international development. It makes the strong argument for the transformative power indigenous knowledge and language development to transcend the errors of modernity, demolish stigmatization and to embrace news of being, learning and teaching for inclusion of all people. It urges the adoption of new indigenous research approaches to promote an explicit understanding of Indigenous and Creole Knowledge Systems and their inclusion in HE curricula as a step towards inclusive and decolonized curricula.

Publications

• Creole Cultures, Vol. 1: Safeguarding Creole Intangible Cultural Heritage
  Editors: Violet Cuffy and Jane Carr
  Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (14 November 2023)

The 1st volume considers the significance of Creole cultures within current, changing global contexts. With a particular focus on post-colonial Small Island Developing States, it brings together perspectives from academics, policy makers and practitioners including those based in Dominica, St Lucia, Seychelles and Mauritius. Together they provide a rich exploration of issues that arise in relation to safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage that sustains Creole identities.

• Creole Cultures, Vol. 2: Creole Identity and Language Representations (forthcoming)
  Editors: Morgan Dalphinis, Duane Edwards, Michael M. Kretzer, Violet Cuffy
  Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (12 June 2024)

The 2nd volume examines safeguarding the languages and cultural practices that sustain creole identities. The concept of Creolity as approached through the different lenses of postcolonial studies, history, and anthropology is used here to consider the social constructions of creole identities, their political and economic realities and how they are experienced as changing, particularly in the modern context. Themes explored are creole societies, folklore and orature, cultural hegemony, cultural sociology, hybridity, and national cultural Identity.

• Carr, J. (2023) The Tangible and Intangible: Dance and the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage', Dance Research, 41 (1), pp. 66-78.

Project links and news

• Link to full project description on UKRI Research and Innovation Gateway
• Creole Research Project launched in Dominica (Dominica News Online – Friday, April 6th, 2018)
• Creole Fest: Building Bridges Across Borders (2018)
• Dominica Country Conference [PDF]. Creole as Cultural Heritage: Framing, Strengthening & Advocating (15-16 August 2019)
• Creole Conversations: A Heritage Documentary Series (2019-2020). An interview documentary Series with key local experts including government official, cultural policymakers, media, artists, creators, cultural elders, educators, Indigenous elders from the Kalinago community
• Launch of the Kalinago Language Video Documentary (St. Cyr Resource Centre, Kalinago Territory, September 22, 2022)

Contact Information

Dr Jane Carr
E: creolecultures@gmail.com