Book review : Resistance, refuge, revival : the indigenous Kalinagos of Dominica

Abstract

Over the 200 pages of Resistance, refuge, revival, Lennox Honychurch details the ethnohistory of the Indigenous Kalinagos on the small island of Dominica/ Wai’tukubuli. Out of Dominica’s current population of just over 65,000, 3,500 identify as Kalinago. Dominica may be small; yet, it has the largest number of people who speak the Kalinago/Carib language in everyday use (not merely for ceremonial purposes) in the Caribbean. The Dominican state has integrated Kalinago political representation into legislation through various changes to the Kalinago Chiefdom; and the Kalinago presence in contemporary Dominica is evident in culture, economy, and nation-building. Writing against Kalinago/Carib exceptionalism, however, Honychurch meticulously details how the history of Kalinago integration and incorporation neither adheres to colonial European paternalistic ideals of an isolated Indigenous people nor of contemporary, postcolonial framings of Kalinagos as authentic symbols of an idyllic pre-European era. Instead, Honychurch draws on various sources to present a more nuanced picture of the Indigenous Kalinagos of Dominica. Divided into the sections of Resistance, Refuge, and Revival, this book draws on archaeological sources of material culture, archival documents, missionary and traveller accounts, as well as oral histories to provide a breadth of evidence for this discussion. Centring around the dialectics of change and continuity, resistance and revival, refuge and accommodation, Honychurch details the cultural, socio-historical, and political life of the Kalinago population in Dominica, especially since the 16th century.