Epilogue. On Augusta's porch; a meditation on decolonizing the archives

摘要

For most of my adult life, I have made my home on the island of St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands, like other islands in the Caribbean Antillean archipelago, was part of that seventeenth- and eighteenth-century land grab by European countries looking to expand their empires and fill their coffers through colonization, exploitation and enslaved labour. My perspective on colonialism, de-colonialism and their relationship to archives and records is through this lens of the Caribbean. As part of my perspective, I offer this personal story: It is a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands and I am sitting on Augusta's porch. Augusta is my 99-year old mother-in-law. Born on the island of St. John, the smallest of the three Virgin Islands, she has lived in St. Thomas for most of her very long life. She traces her St. Johnian family back many generations.