Research

The Art Contest is also run with the purpose of providing valuable insights into the relationships between heritage, identity, culture, memory and history on Bonaire. This research is undertaken by the organizing group but particularly by Oliver Antczak who is conducting research and engaged in practice in the fields of Heritage Studies, Heritage Management, Archaeology, and Anthropology. You can read more about the organizers on the Team page or visit our publication page to see results of this work.

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Oliver's work forms part of an interdisciplinary project aiming to better understand the history and present day demographic diversity of Bonaire. Using methods, data and theory from archaeology, history, ethnography, Heritage Studies, and more, he engages with topics of colonialism, identity, heritage, and memory, among others, to arrive at a more complex and nuanced understanding of Bonaire's past and present, bringing it also into the context of the Southern Caribbean alongside islands such as Margarita, Los Roques and Trinidad and Tobago.

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Similar contests have taken place in Trinidad (kairiartcontest.com) and Margarita, Venezuela (gentedemar.org).