WHAT IS THE FIREBURN FILES PROJECT
Mural @ Complex High School, St. Croix.
La Vaughn Belle & Jeannette Ehlers: Photo: Helle Stenum
I Am Queen Mary, 2018
Courtesy of the artists
Reclaiming history
The Fireburn Files Project is NOT about finding the ultimate truth about the past, but an attempt to facilitate the creation of a shared platform of accessible historical sources both written and oral, for dialogue, interpretations, accounts, exploration and understanding of Fireburn and its implications.
Documents
After the sale of Virgin Islands, the archives of more than 200 years of colonial power and administration were brought to Denmark. In 2017 The Danish National Archive scanned many of the documents and made them digitally accessible on their website, including those relating to Fireburn. However, the documents are handwritten in old Danish language style and only transparent and accessible for a limited group of people. Archival material on the Fireburn is also found in US archives and British Archives.
Oral histories
In the US Virgin Islands, Fireburn is often told through oral family or community histories, lyrics in songs and re-enactments, and families have ancestors, who were involved.
Fireburn Files Project
The Fireburn Files Project intends over time to bring these different sources together on a web-based platform, where documents are transcribed and translated in English and oral histories are recorded and documented.
FIREBURN IN THE NEWS
Oct
1st
Pilot version of Fireburnfiles.dk
From 1st October to 31.December the web platform will exist in a pilot version. Especially people from the USVI are encouraged to comment
On-line events on the Fireburn Files Project will be announced here and in the Newsletter.
Photo: Niels Meilvang/ Information
Inauguration Copenhagen 1st Oct 2018 of La Vaughn Belle's & Jeannette Ehlers': I Am Queen Mary
Events and dates
Dec
31th
Jan
1st
2021
Pilot version of Fireburnfiles.dk ends
31.December ends the pilot period.
Work in progress version of Fireburnfiles.dk
Blog opens
FIREBURN
TEAM
Bertha Rex Coley, M.A. History and English, Head of translation
Helle Stenum, Phd, filmmaker, Founder
FIREBURN
PARTNERS
Visco; Virgin Islands Study Collective:
La Vaughn Belle, Visual Artist.
Tami Navarro, Ph.D., Associate Director, Barnard Center for Research on Women,
Hadiya Sewer, PhD, Research Fellow in AAAS at Stanford
Tiphanie Yanique, Author, professor Emory University
Jeannette Bastian, professor, Simmons University
Gunvor Simonsen, Associate professor, University of Copenhagen
Pernille Ibsen, Associate professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Anna Kirstine Schirrer, Anthropologist, Columbia University
Rikke Halberg, M.A. History and English
Bertha Rex Coley, M.A. History and English
Helle Stenum, Phd, filmmaker
ACKNOW
LEDGEMENTS
Jens Villumsen for the tireless work in transcribing more than a thousand pages from the Archives
George Tyson for generously handing over documents and writings and sharing his immense insight.
All the enthutiastic students who volunteered in the first phase of the project to translate documents, which unfortunately was not a sustainable way forward.
Nina Trige Andersen for assisting with the website.
Frandelle Gerard for the enthutiastic support and future collaboration on the oral history part.
Jeannette Ehlers for support and performances