Women’s movement in Bonaire

March 4th 2023, the finalization of the oral history project of the women’s movement in Bonaire was celebrated. This project was executed by Liliane de Geus and Judith Brekelmans in 2021-2022 and was mentored by Prof. dr. Rose Mary Allen, chair of Culture, Community and History at the University of Curacao.

The project is part of the capacity development activities of the NWO-funded project ‘Cultural Practices of Citizenship under Conditions of Fragmented Sovereignty: Gendered and Sexual Citizenship in Curaçao and Bonaire, 2017-2022 coordinated by Dr. Sruti Bala , Associate professor Theatre studies, University of Amsterdam’.

Twenty-eight persons were interviewed in total. The first group interviewed consisted of 14 persons who were older than 60 years, some of whom were members of the different women’s organizations and the Steering Committee, the umbrella women’s platform. Some of the women in this first group were not directly involved in a woman’s group but were women activists and groundbreakers in their own right in the areas of politics, the labour movement, social affairs, or culture and the arts. The second group consisted of women in the 50-60 age group, while the third group comprised women between the ages of 20 and 49, generally called young professionals. The youngest woman interviewed was 29 years old at the time, and the oldest was 92.

Preparing for a series of extensive oral history interviews on Bonaire to document the women’s movements and participation in the public sphere …. Rose Mary Allen with Jolanda Helmyer-Marsera