Milestones are strange things. With social media, numbers become paramount. You see them grow and you think, “Boy, when I get this number of followers, I’ve made it!” Or, “Oh look! This celebrity follows the page.” Yes, these things feel good, but I feel like milestones for him Know Your Caribbean (KYC) come with the community impact we do – doing live events, creating tangible experiences. I feel like we are doing something right here.
As the daughter of St. Lucia’s first Prime Minister (and national hero) Sir John Compton, I have been exposed to history all my life. My childhood home is full of old maps, paintings, drawings and photos.
I never got those things as a kid. I dropped the story in form three because I really hated it! The story only came to me through my photography practice.
I got tired of taking “pretty” pictures. I wanted to tell a story in every image I presented and through that I wanted to dig deeper. I started learning things, even feeling cheated – how could I not know that?
At the same time, my mother – who, like most Caribbean parents, is not very tech-savvy but loves history – would ask me to bid on old postcards on eBay. They were stunning images from our past. Pictures from more than a century ago: how we dressed, what our streets looked like, the details of our jewelry … there was so much in one image, and I was fascinated.
When Core was created, some of the content I shared may be inflammatory and painful. I would share things focused on dates and historical facts, but I paid little attention to the human story, the emotions behind things. I presented things in a very basic, copy and paste way, and I didn’t consider my audience enough.
As time went on, the deeper I got into things, the less I focused on dates and facts and more on how stories make us feel. Here things started to change and grow. Our story is emotional, because this is where we come from.
I see a lot of sites that share content that encourages them to be provocative and for their audience to be responsive, rather than grow and connect, but I didn’t want that. I wanted us to thrive and feel more connected to ourselves, even when the stories are difficult.
There there was no formula for the journey of Core from the initial idea to the powerful force it has become. I followed things that ignited my spirit with enthusiasm to learn something new and looking for a cool way to tell that story.
I like to do different things, such as overlaying lyrics from the 1700s with some current dancehall music to connect the dots. I speak in my Caribbean vernacular in my posts. I don’t just cover the biggest countries. What about Saba? Nevis? Marie Galante? Let’s talk about all of them.
The comments section, I think is the best part KYC, as this is where the community meets and connects. Academia has an air of elitism that alienates the average person. Museums and institutions have a huge disconnect with people, and I wish many more barriers would come down to allow space for those who are truly interested in learning.
I see too many sites that share content that encourages them to be provocative and for their audience to be reactive, rather than grow and connect.
It would be humbling to know if we have had an impact on Caribbean schools. I would like to see if they could take things from an emotional approach – not just dates and facts and figures – realizing that our history with slavery is much more complicated than black versus white.
The hardest pill to swallow was learning about several maroon communities who were contracted by Europeans to capture runaway enslaved people and sell them back into slavery. He was tough.
Of course, I have read of much violence in our Caribbean lineage and the unimaginable brutality we carry in our DNA. Scientists say we carry trauma that goes back seven generations, so understanding the extreme pain we carry with us and knowing the details has been difficult.
I had to tell one of our most difficult stories in a way that honored those who endured it in The World Reimagined [a national art education project in the United Kingdom about the transatlantic slave trade] – a wonderful experience. I made a public art piece with the globe covered in peacock flowers. These were used by enslaved women to end pregnancies as they did not want their children to endure the life they did.
The globe was placed in front of a church in Liverpool – built with money from slavery – for several weeks. It was then settled in London’s Trafalgar Square [one of the iconic “emblems of empire”]. To be able to have the names of enslaved people executed for poisoning their slaves written in gold leaf around the globe and read their names meant a lot to me and to many people.
in need to talk more about reparations. What it means for us and what we can do about it. With campaigns like Repair [working for reparatory justice in the Caribbean, guided by the CARICOM Reparations Commission]we’re finding out what happened on the ground with those who put them to work, as we learn about existing and future restorative justice funds being made available.
The repair campaign is necessary [because] most of us believe we should be compensated the same way the slaves were when slavery ended, yet we don’t know where to start, how much we owe, and how to make sure the moment isn’t lost.
Academia has an air of elitism that alienates the average person
The future intentions of Core are big – a book, and international television is high on the list. I want everything to be bold and authentic, where we can sit back and feel good about being represented the right way.
We will postpone our show Try a Ting this year. My friend Sherween and I are going to try to cook something we’ve never made before, [and with] local and healthy ingredients. We have shot in three locations and hope to shoot more in order to celebrate the full diversity of Caribbean cuisine and culture. We intend to visit every Caribbean country to try a ting!
Our history is so vast, and I just want to encourage everyone to fall in love with ourselves and our culture again. Most of the time when I share something, it’s because I just found it out myself. So I’m on this journey of discovery just like everyone else.
If we can encourage even more Caribbean pride, [showcasing] that we have a history to be proud of, not ashamed of, as serious survivors – I’d be happy!
