Dominica observing History Week from 3rd to 7th October; ‘Building Communities: 1838 – 1938’

​History Week is being observed in Dominica from October 3-7, 2016. The theme for this year’s observation is Building Communities: 1838 – 1938. The highlights of the week will be a feature lecture by Cozier Frederick, a historian of the Kalinago Territory and Development Officer in the Ministry of Kalinago Affairs, which will be delivered at the Arawak House of Culture, on Tuesday 4th October, and the presentation of a web-resource by Dr. Schuyler Esprit of Create Caribbean Inc, to be held at the Dominica State College on Thursday 6th October.
 
Frederick’s lecture will focus on human settlement patterns and the process of building communities in Dominica, starting with the Kalinago, and proceeding to the period under consideration, when the majority of communities as we know them today were created. The new web resource which also focuses on the week’s theme is being developed by Create Caribbean Inc on behalf of the Cultural Division and will form part of the website dominicahistory.org which was launched during History Week 2015.
 
As in previous years, schools around the island are expected to hold special events, assemblies, lectures, and undertake classroom-based projects. Also included in the week’s activities will be a special DBS Talking Point programme on the theme Building Communities.
 
In focusing on the period 1838 – 1938, History Week 2016 affords an opportunity for school students and community persons to look back, to research and to reflect on the origins of their particular community and link this to wider developments taking place in Dominica at that time. This will shed light on land settlement and ownership patterns, family and kinship patterns, social life and the economy. In so doing, one can better situate, contextualize and understand the evolution and development of the Dominican society, from its Kalinago origins, through plantation slavery and crown colony rule to the emergence of a modern independent state.
 
History Week is an annual event organized by the Cultural Division as part of Independence Celebration activities. It is aimed at creating greater awareness of Dominica’s history and the process of nation-building.