Knowledge Center

Foundation Históriko Kultural Boneriano, FuHiKuBo
The foundation for the history and culture of Bonaire, founded on August 6, 1998 has as mission to promote the documentation of Bonaire’s history and tries to achieve this through:
a. The documentation of history through the means of collecting of historical works about Bonaire, family and other archives, the transcription, filming and recording of (folk)stories (oral history) and folkloric music in order to centralize them in one archive;
b. The review and study of historical sources, the production of musical recordings, books, magazines and the editing thereof;
c. The maintenance of relations with scientific institution and persons

It is active in all the domains of the Unesco 2003 ICH Convention through which it is involved safeguarding activities such as: identification, documentation, research (including inventory-making); preservation, protection; promotion, enhancement; transmission, formal or non formal education and revitalization.

Activities
Before the ratification in 2012 by the Netherlands of the 2003 UNESCO ICH Convention FUHIKUBO has been video recording the elderly of Bonaire since the nineties for their stories about all kinds of subjects pertaining to Bonaire’s heritage, culture and nature. In that respect, the archives of FUHIKUBO now have over 2000-recorded interviews and many documentaries and specials on a variety of topics pertaining intangible cultural heritage. This tremendous wealth in information is available free of charge to the public at large via the website archivoboneiru.com and since 2017 there is also a dedicated TV channel, Bonaire.tv showing 24 hours all these documentaries and interviews. The programs are shown on the other islands of Curacao, Aruba, St. Maarten, and the Netherlands. The programs are also on YouTube. Most programs are in Papiamentu but there are also many in English and Dutch.

Category programs 2021 #episodes & counting
Boneiru Ayera i Awe (Bonaire yesteryear and today): 460
Documentaries: 70
Herensia (Heritage): 1385
Herensia di Siglo (Heritage of the Ages): 85
Aki Boneiru: 446 (1981- )
Aktualidat: 38 (aug 2021- )
Beku (weekly radio program): ±1000 (2007- )
After the ratification of the Convention by the Netherlands, FUHIKUBO continues to play an important role in the local implementation of the convention. The director, Mr. Franklin Antoin is a member of the UNESCO Workgroup Bonaire since 2014 and has attended all the sessions of the Capacity Building Project of the 2003 ICH Convention throughout the years 2014-2018 sponsored by the Netherlands for Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, and St. Maarten. St. Eustatius, Saba and Surinam.
Throughout the years, FUHIKUBO has branched out and documents oral history on the other islands of the ex-Netherlands Antilles and these programs are archived and shown on local TV Stations and in the Netherlands.

The Founder and Director of FUHIKUBO, is Mr. Franklin Dominico Antoin, a Bonairean with a strong interest in history, culture and nature. Because of Mr. Antoin’s profession as a journalist for the local newspaper EXTRA he started at in 1977, he has transcribed and written thousands of articles, stories, and series throughout his career that have appeared on a daily basis in the Papiamentu language newspaper EXTRA distributed on Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao and available online. He has therefore also promoted the use of the local language Papiamentu as vehicle of transmission. He has also published many books on historical happenings, special events and the communities of and on the island of Bonaire. Mr. Antoin and fellow board members of FUHIKUBO provide the various courses and training activities. He is also an avid hiker and has provided numerous guided tours all over Bonaire throughout the years. Currently the “Chantiwawa’ group, alumni of Mr. Antoin organizes the hiking tours on a regular basis.

Competence and expertise
The organization has built up over forty years of active experience in the field of researching, documenting, safeguarding, transmission intangible cultural history and shares this this knowledge and serves as an example for others.
FUHIKUBO employs one part-time coordinator, and one camerawoman who also edits. The other permanent employee, sponsored by Bonaire Communication Services, digitizes, uploads, and manages the audio and audio-visual material and equipment of FUHIKUBO. The organization works with volunteers and trainees. Extra camera people are hired for specific projects and transcription of documentaries is outsourced. Mr. Antoin and fellow board members provide the various courses and training activities.

FUHIKUBO has a core group of 15 volunteers who received training, few times in collaboration with UNESCO's ICH Capacity Building project, in documenting oral history through qualitative research, interviewing techniques, time-coding, editing, quantitative research, digitizing, and archiving. The interviewing group has produced several documentaries of the local festivals such as the Harvest festival - Simadan, Drum Festival – Barí, Patron Saints – San Juan i San Pedro, Masquerade–Maskarada, Heal masters–Kuranderia, and Natural Disasters–Fenómeno Natural. The skills gathered and transmitted for making documentaries are based on the vast experience of documentaries made by FUHIKUBO of traditions, social practices, traditional craftsmanship and oral history.

Experience in cooperating with communities, groups and ICH practitioners
FUHIKUBO’s vast experience collaborating with individuals and local communities in the area of ICH has provided her a very positive reputation. Her services are actively sought, i.e. interviewing the elderly, practitioners and artists, who have given the organization the growth it has experienced becoming an institution with an impressive digital and physical archive it has today for safeguarding and transmission. She receives daily family pictures and documents for safekeeping including 45, 33 and 78 rpms phonograph records; musical recordings, audiovisual materials, books and objects. There is a specific group of volunteers in charge of selecting, describing, and digitizing photographs. FUHIKUBO has thousands of photographs. Another group, including for example bank employees doing community work as part of their employment, are trained to give nature walks of all areas of Bonaire, provide informative/educational talks on history, culture and nature and also archiving – registering books, manuscripts, magazines, etc. in FUHIKUBO’s physical library. Students, teachers, and community at large visit the physical library regularly.

Collaboration: FUHIKUBO collaborates with a.o. Mangazina di Rei, Terramar Museum, The Foundation for Arts & Culture and Plataforma Kultural on Bonaire, Regional archive Dordrecht in the Netherlands and NAAM in Curaçao.

Courses: FUHIKUBO provided Papiamentu writing courses to the community. At the end of the course, the groups produced a newspaper, ESUN that was widely distributed. There are investigative research courses for teachers using FUHIKUBO’s archives and Bonaire’s history courses for the public and newcomers to the island. Bonaire’s history courses are given regularly throughout the year in Papiamentu, Dutch and English.

Radio program: The weekly on Saturday mornings two hour long radio program, in the air continuous from 1985 first as Radiotopiko then since 2007 as ‘BEKU’ at the radio station Voz di Boneiru 94.7FM (Voice of Bonaire). BEKU provides the platform for the community at large to bring forward, discuss, exchange on the state of Bonaire’s holistic culture and active society. All the programs are nowadays livestreamed, recorded and reviewable on the BEKU facebook page or Voz di Boneiru 94.7FM facebook page.

Website, Social Media, TV: FUHIKUBO’s digital archive is currently at around 45 TB with audiovisual, visual and data information. Anyone in the world can access the complete archive with new material uploaded on a regular basis via archivoboneiru.com, FUHIKUBO’s digital archive’s website. FUHIKUBO, BONAIRE.TV, and BEKU each have a Facebook page or YouTube and Vimeo link where communities outside of Bonaire can follow live streaming of radio programs and TV productions.

Contact information:
FuHiKuBo
Kaya Irlandia 12
Bonaire, C.N.
Tel: +5997178482
Email address: b.antoin.extra@gmail.com & fuhikubo@gmail.com