Nomination: Drempelprijs 2018
My research is about how I, a queer black woman, born and raised in Curaçao, deal with the fact that I don't feel at home here in The Netherlands, and how researching part of the history, related to slavery on my island that is attached to my identity, lead me to religions/beliefs. Specifically, Catholicism, which was used as a tool of domination and how the enslaved people mixed it with their own beliefs and created a syncretism like Santería.
I have explored this by doing a field research in Cuba where I have experienced different kinds of rituals and talked to people to gain more insights regarding this subject. I have also compared the Catholicism that is practised in Curaçao and Santería in Cuba and have found some similarities between them. These traditional rituals I grew up with and experiencing life here in the Netherlands both give me space to tell unknown stories and make myself feel more grounded in a location that is basically anti-ritual.
