100 objects
Over time, many diverse memories and experiences become attached to the objects we surround ourselves with. These objects thus transcend their initial functions. They absorb their history and narrative; they connect us with others, a particular place, and times gone by. In this way, a simple object can become a relic that answers the questions of our origins and of who we are.
Workshops
We gather objects by inviting people for workshops. During the workshops, participants share their objects and the stories that these objects represent. What is important to us is that the conversations never lead to discussion or disagreement about what is true or which opinion matters the most. The exchanges should be about people’s past and present lives. Each participant has their view, but that should be something inspiring and exciting, not problematic or controversial.
We do our best to present the objects in this spirit. They do not represent one truth, nor do they exclude different perspectives. We consider history to be a pluriform phenomenon, something polyphonic in its nature that should not be told by a single voice.
Work in progress
After successfully implementing the 100 Opheto project in Curaçao, we are expanding our acquired experience and the applied method to other former colonies. The focus remains the same: collecting stories and objects about the past that have remained untold to arrive at a bottom-up perspective, independent of official historiography and not following the dominant Western perspective.
By giving the project an international follow-up, transnational connections can be made in the long term. Differences and similarities will become visible. Most existing historical knowledge focuses on the relationship between the center and the periphery, where Europe and the US play a dominant role. And although these ties still have a significant influence today, little attention is paid to other transnational connections within South America and the Caribbean. Intercontinental contacts between the Caribbean and South America on the one hand, and a continent like Africa on the other hand, are often overlooked or shaped by a Western view.
Sources
Our primary historical sources are the participants of the workshops. We usually add context to place each object in time and place.
We thereby gratefully rely on the work of institutions like NAAM and the National Archive of Curaçao, who make a lot of reliable information available to the public. We made use of specific books like Ruben La Cruz’s and Karolien Helweg’s terrific “De vergeten monumenten van Curaçao” (Arnhem, 2014) about “the kas di palu furá ku bleki” (the tin-covered houses of Curaçao) and a lot of other valuable publications about the lesser known parts of history.