Participating in a workshop in Barbados

I teach the courses Storytelling and Cultural Narratives, Understanding Leisure and Tourism Attractions and Events, and I supervise qualitative research projects. In 2022, I finished my PhD, and now I am defining my research direction further, which is mostly related to Placemaking, Events, and Storytelling. From 5 to 8 February 2024, I took part in a workshop in Barbados, called Caribbean World Heritage Sites in the light of today’s global challenges: the case of Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison. The workshop was organised by Dr Maaike de Waal from Leiden University in collaboration with UWI (University of the West Indies). Maaike had asked me to participate and deliver a keynote presentation.

Ilja Simons is a lecturer and researcher at Academy for Leisure & Events, in the BSc Leisure Studies and the MSc Leisure and Tourism Studies.

At first, I was hesitant to go. Obviously, Barbados is a place most people want to visit since it is one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean. But on the other hand, I did not want to impose an outsider perspective in a cultural context that was unfamiliar to me. But Maaike had worked at UWI and lived in Barbados and had strong connections there. When we discussed the workshop, I trusted that she could judge whether my expertise and contribution would be of added value. The four-day workshop took place at the University of the West Indies in Barbados. The participants were lecturers and some students of UWI, and other stakeholders, all involved in Bridgetown as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, such as a representative of the Ministry of Tourism, the director of the Barbados Museum, architects, and city planners. It was a very diverse and multidisciplinary group.

Open Space Technology

The workshop consisted of a mix of keynote presentations by experts in different fields, and Open Space Technology sessions, which is a participatory technique in which the participants collaboratively make the agenda, and individuals take ownership of one of the agenda items. This was also linked to an online environment, which led to immediate output and documentation of the workshop. Another advantage of the technique was that, given the great diversity in participants, not only in expertise, but also in position and power, this technique made it possible for people to join their conversations of choice, which gave everyone a chance to have their voice included. The themes that were discussed during the three days were, among other things, conservation, tourism, liveability, sustainability, and maintenance of the buildings.

At the end of the second day, I delivered my keynote presentation about storytelling and re-framing heritage. It led to a very interesting discussion on whose heritage Bridgetown is, and what stories should be told about it. Bridgetown is colonial heritage and therefore also contested. The workshop ended with a guided tour of Bridgetown by Dr Karl Watson, a renowned expert on Barbados heritage and a true storyteller. It was an absolute pleasure to listen to his stories, which ranged from historical episodes to personal anecdotes.

Follow-up and outcomes

Participating in this workshop was valuable for several reasons. Firstly, it allowed me to apply the concepts and theories I use in my courses at BUas to a different cultural context. Moreover, it was very interesting to participate in the discussions which were of a high academic level. These discussions have honed my own research ideas regarding heritage, storytelling, and tourism, also from a post-colonial perspective.

Back in Breda, I have been interviewing the participants about the topics of the workshop to obtain more formal data. The goal is to write an insights paper based on the workshop, and hopefully also an academic paper, in collaboration with Leiden University and a scholar from Barbados. Moreover, I intend to use Bridgetown as a case in my lectures, since it is illustrative of many of the concepts that we already discuss. After this workshop I feel quite inspired, and better equipped to further explore placemaking, heritage and storytelling in a Caribbean and post-colonial context.