St. Eustatius Monuments Foundation Director Walter Hellebrand with the blade of a dug-up cutlass.
ST. EUSTATIUS--The keenly awaited major slavery exhibition in the Netherlands’ national historical museum, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, will also highlight the stories of the enslaved in St. Eustatius. A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes already to make sure that visitors to the exhibition can see objects from St. Eustatius that physically illustrate the stories.
Local historical organisations such as St. Eustatius Historical Foundation and St. Eustatius Monuments Foundation are providing objects on loan to the Rijksmuseum for the duration of the exhibition. One of these is the blade of a dug-up cutlass that is part of the Monuments Foundation’s collection.
Local historian in Statia Walter Hellebrand, who was curator and designer of the exhibition “Days of Slavery on St. Eustatius” in the island’s Historical Museum in 2013, said it is “great” that the creators of the Rijksmuseum exhibition acknowledge the role of the island in this “important chapter” of Dutch history.
“In the late 1700s, the population of enslaved men and women on St. Eustatius was larger than its current population,” said Hellebrand.
The exhibition is being put together by Eveline Sint Nicolaas, Valika Smeulders, Maria Holtrop and Stephanie Archangel. They are working closely with a large group of other people with diverse expertise and backgrounds from various countries.
Because of the repercussions of the COVID-19 outbreak, the originally intended opening had to be postponed. It is now planned for February 21, 2021.
The prestigious Rijksmuseum annually attracts more than 2,000,000 visitors.
