Making Space for Heritage: Collaboration, Sustainability, and Education in a Creole Community Archaeology Museum in Northern Belize

Abstract

Working with local partners, we developed an archaeology museum in the Creole community of Crooked Tree in the Maya lowlands of northern Belize. This community museum presents the deep history of human–environment interaction in the lower Belize River Watershed, which includes a wealth of ancient Maya sites and, as the birthplace of Creole culture, a rich repository of historical archaeology and oral history. The Creole are descendants of Europeans and enslaved Africans brought to Belize—a former British colony—for logging in the colonial period. Belizean history in schools focuses heavily on the ancient Maya, which is well documented archaeologically, but Creole history and culture remain largely undocumented and make up only a small component of the social studies curriculum. The development of a community archaeology museum in Crooked Tree aims to address this blind spot. We discuss how cultural sustainability, collaborative partnerships, and the role of education have shaped this heritage-oriented project. Working with local teachers, we produced exhibit content that augments the national social studies curriculum. Archaeology and museum education offer object-based learning geared for school-age children and provide a powerful means of promoting cultural vitality, and a more inclusive consideration of Belizean history and cultural heritage practices and perspectives.

Instructing students in history museums: A systematic literature review

“…through encouraging them to consider the role of museums within larger political or societal debates) (Marcus, 2007); (2) describing more general principles behind the pedagogical approaches of particular history museums related to sensitive topics such as the Holocaust, slavery or creole history (e.g. a focus on polyvocality, inclusivity or personal stories) (Brand, 2013;Davis & Goldberg, 2019;Grim et al, 2017;Harrison-Buck & Clarke-Vivier, 2020) or (3) describing the design of concrete resources to facilitate instruction in a museum, e.g. an educational role play that features life at an abbey in the Middle Ages, the use of 'museum footnotes' or a workshop that aimed to foster students' skills to analyse historical artworks (Leftwich & McAllen, 2018;Marcus & Kowitt, 2016;Moisan, 2015;Munn & Wickens, 2018;Paulsen, 2019).…”

“…First, collaboration can work if classroom teachers inform the museum educator about the way they teach history in schools. This enables (1) the connection of the museum experience to lessons before as well as after the visit and (2) the museum educator to complement the school curriculum with hands-on object-centred approaches where museums are often more familiar with (Harrison-Buck & Clarke-Vivier, 2020;Moisan, 2015;Paulsen, 2019). Second, within instructional practices themselves, the museum educator and the classroom teacher need to assign each other clear roles.…”

The future of archaeology is (still) community collaboration

“…Nonetheless, there have been archaeologists from Latin America, working in Latin America, who have steadfastly applied the principles of community-based research in their work (e.g. Hernández Álvarez & Martín Medina 2016; Balanzátegui Moreno 2018; Ichikawa 2018; Migeon 2019; Diserens Morgan & Leventhal 2020; Harrison-Buck & Clarke-Vivier 2020; Fryer & Diserens Morgan 2021; McAnany et al 2021; Hartemann 2022; Weaver et al 2022). One particularly strong example is the El Proyecto Santa María de la Antigua del Darién project which began in 2013 at the behest of the Colombian Ministry of Culture, the National University of Colombia, and the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History.…”

Processing and Optimizing Industrial Structure Adjustment of Intangible Cultural Heritage by Big Data Technology in the Internet Era

“…is paper takes "Internet+" as the background of rural tourism marketing development and finds a new model of rural tourism marketing that is different from the traditional marketing model. e deep integration of Internet technology in rural tourism promotes its development [15]. e "Internet +" has become a powerful driving force for the development of rural tourism, and its reliance on technology has pushed rural tourism marketing to a whole new level.…”