Dominica as a Centre of Excellence for the Preservation & Celebration of the Creole Culture through Language, the Arts and its indigenous Kalinagos

The kweyol language surfaced in Dominica and elsewhere in the Caribbean during slavery from the 1600s and became the first language among the natives. About the middle of the last century this changed with the colonised mother tongue, English, moving into the main stream gradually replacing the creole tradition. That decline continued particularly among the youth, in the urban areas and spread into some rural regions.

For many decades use of the indigenous Kweyol language was forbidden in the homes of the upper and middle class since it was then perceived as a practice among the lower class and rural population. Moreover, families who migrated and settled in the UK for the most part abandoned the creole culture. As such, except in rare cases an identity gulf was created between Black-British descendants and their Creole heritage.

However in the last 30 years there have been efforts on a national scale to expand its usage into non-traditional domains by cultural icons and advocates, the media, through tourism signage, internet and Parliament. This involved a concerted drive towards 'creole brand recognition' as a valued national heritage for its rich assets of a distinct language and an instrument for advancing creative cultural industries in the arts and among marginalised communities and the diaspora.

Yet still today kweyol remains largely conceived as part of the cultural tradition celebrated in popular music, storytelling, dance and informal conversations, but generally this is limited mainly to Creole month activities. Hence, there have been recent efforts by KEK and other advocates to raise the profile of the language and its accompanying creole art forms among the populace and within the cultural tourism market. Nevertheless, marked by significant limitations and challenges of a small island and an LMIC efforts have not been fully realised. Accordingly, there is urgent need for an evidenced based approach to advance the work of KEK as a core driver to the national Creole cultural agenda of the island and in the wider Caribbean region.

Thus the DoBeC network aims to explore, through public debate and research, ways in which the creole heritage can be preserved and further developed to ensure sustainability of the way of life, language, unique fashion and artforms. DoBeC seeks to celebrate innovative forms of its representation on the national tourism platform in the short term and future sustained growth at the level of World Heritage Status.

In seeking in-depth contextual understanding through social constructivism and engaging activity theory the network will adopt a series of qualitative inquiry measures over a two-year period as follows:

1 Initial online scoping and planning meeting among lead investigators, 2017
2 Development of online presence via social media to initiate public awareness and promote the project, 2017
3 Public engagement workshop at the Dominica High Commission (UK), 2017
4 Creative Industries Expert Public Forum - University of Bedfordshire, 2017
5 A series of out-district workshops & focus groups in key cultural hubs in Dominica
(Grand Bay, St. Joseph, Kalinago Territory, Petite Soufriere Area, Laplaine, Cottage/Portsmouth/Vielle Case), 2018 -2019
6 Youth symposium & focus groups, Dominica State College 2018, 2019
7 Youth symposium & focus groups UK, Dominica High Commission, April 2018, 2019
8 Expert video interviews with cultural experts, elders and icons on the island, 2018-2019
9 An International creole symposium in the Dominica during creole month October 2018
10 Academic conference - University of Bedfordshire, Summer 2019
11. Creation of Documentary, 2019

The data collected will serve to advance the research network specific objectives in the short and form a platform for advancing the broader mid to long term goals for KEK as a Centre of Excellence in Creole heritage and cultural preservation in the Caribbean region.

Dominica has benefited from a rich culture and creole heritage, creating a strong cultural brand and identity among creole speaking nations globally. The creole culture and language has advanced due to the work of advocates and establishment of the NGO KEK, an affiliate to the National Cultural Council and Cultural Division of Dominica. Thus, the work of this network will serve to address in part, issues of limited expert capacity and challenges of lack of world class resources currently experienced in LMICs particularly, The Commonwealth of Dominica.

The network would also have direct benefit for key stakeholders and practitioners working within the field of heritage tourism, creative industries and indigenous cultures in general but specifically in Dominica namely, KEK & The Folk Research Centre, The National Cultural Council, The Cultural Division of Dominica, The Discover Dominica Authority, creole cultural artists, the arts and entrepreneurs in creative industries sector, hospitality and tourism service providers, policy makers and significantly members of the marginalised indigenous Kalinago (Carib Indian) community.

The network will further the development of creative cultural economies around the kweyol language, song, dance, cuisine, arts and crafts and fashion. Establishment of KEK as a centre of excellence will greatly strengthen the 'Dominican creole brand' in the Caribbean region and on the global tourism market raising the profile of current traditional community tourism village festivals, example, Fete Isidor, Titiwi Festival, Creole in the Park, and the Karibanna Kaute, the Kalinago Reserve Tourism Village.

The Kweyol language will gain much significance in the medium to long-term with government support and initiation of legislation and policy adoption of kweyol as a second native language to be taught in schools along the options currently advanced in languages - French, Spanish, German etc.

Dominica's economy will be greatly impacted to the extent that creole culture and heritage is central to government's policy and actions (investment, marketing, branding, production) in the areas of tourism, services and the creative industries expanding revenue streams created in existing cultural areas, as in the case of the festivals, carnival and independence celebrations.

Initiation of a national creole archive and online database is imperative for sustaining the network outputs so impacting advancement of the creole culture in Dominica in the first instance, but by extension the wider creole speaking world - this presents future research opportunity.

Establishment of best practices in the management and implementation of creole cultural development programmes to further define and shape the creole cultural identity in the Commonwealth of Dominica has far reaching impact on the national tourism product. By extension, broad dissemination of outputs would ensure international reach and possible adoption by other creole speaking countries worldwide.

The strong research focus of the network will provide valuable insight and evidence based knowledge for driving and shaping policy on Kweyol in education; development of learning support materials; and a pilot project involving teaching kweyol within school, institutes and heritage programmes for practitioners at KEK's Research Centre and beyond.

Internationally the network will stimulate furtherance of the Creole movement among indigenous cultures and marginalised societies. There are several LMIC countries with strong creole cultures including but not limited to Haiti, St. Lucia, Sychelles, Mauritius and many African countries who could potentially be impacted by engagement with the work of the network during and after the project.

Significantly the work and success of this network would serve to positively impact the LMIC by gaining world class leadership as a centre in folk research and culture in the Caribbean region and beyond.