Roadtown, Tortola - The Archives and Records Management Unit of the Deputy Governor’s Office hosted a successful History Research Workshop on May 14.
The workshop, which is a component of the Deputy Governor’s History Research Awards Programme, was designed for beginners as well as experienced researchers who may need re-orientation in various methods of research.
The workshop was held at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College Marine Centre and was facilitated by Dr. Patricia Turnbull of RainWater Institute. Mmes. Katherine Smith, Shirley Faulkner Walters and Messers Michael Kent and Geoffrey Brooks served as resource persons.
Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Deputy Governor’s Office, Ms. Arlene Smith chaired the brief ceremony, welcomed the participants and gave an overview of the Deputy Governor’s History Research Awards Programme. Chief Records Management Officer Mrs. Verna Penn Moll did the invocation.
Permanent Secretary in the Deputy Governor’s Office Ms. Julia Christopher expressed her pleasure in seeing so many participants at the workshop. “I am glad to see so many of you here today because as Virgin Islanders we need to be the ones recording our own history.
“When we record our own history we are going to write it differently from someone coming in from outside. We are going to be more thorough and I think we are going to be more favourable. We are going to question more and we are not going to bring in a different culture to interpret anything that we did, so it is very important,” Ms. Christopher added.
Dr. Turnbull in her remarks told the gathering, “having being involved in the Archives Adhoc Committee, I am aware of the previous entries to the Deputy Governor’s History Awards and is has been a concern of the judges that we have to do something to further support those persons who had taken on history and histology of these Virgin Islands and who made it such an impassioned commitment.
She added, “We saw the need for getting together and sharing some knowledge among ourselves of the rich history of these Virgin Islands as well as the discipline underlying the work of research.”
Participants from across a wide spectrum of the community attended. Some comments recorded on evaluation forms at the conclusion of the workshop were: awesome, superb, really good, wonderful, eye-opener.
The History Research Workshop was part one in a two-part series. The second workshop will be held on September 14 to determine the progress of participants’ with their research projects and to give guidance if needed. The winner(s) of the Deputy Governor’s History Research Programme will be announced in December 2009.
British Virgin Islands News