Dear Source,
As a person of Afro Caribbean heritage, I am not satisfied or comforted by Botany Bay Developers' promises to preserve the importance of Estate Botany Bay's cultural, environmental or historical resources for future generations. While it is true that the land is in private hands, does that mean that the developer can proceed as they feel fit? Presently, Estate Botany Bay is a cultural and historical gold mine to the people of the Virgin Islands — whether we know it or not.
The property includes several archeological sites, including the remains of a pre-Columbian settlement that may date back at least 1,400 years, as well as numerous slave graves and plantation ruins. The V.I. Planning and Natural Resources Department has designated the site as an "area of particular concern" because of its cultural, environmental & historical resources.
Besides the environmental concern, concern for the cultural and historical aspect regarding Estate Botany Bay's development is equally important. To date the only evidence Botany Bay Partners have shown towards preserving the cultural and historical aspects of Estate Botany Bay has been a verbal one.
In past public hearings requests to have been made, such as:
— Open access to Botany Bay before public hearing so that the public can get a better understanding of what/where Botany Bay is.
— Identify and secure for future use public access route to beach.
— Require Botany Bay Partners in writing to conduct school tours of the Amerindian ball court ruins and also plantation ruins. These areas and future discoveries should be declared and designated historically significant. All these and the artifacts of Botany Bay should be preserved on tape in perpetuity.
— Entire area of Botany Bay should be videotaped from the air, sea and underwater as well as a walk-through of sensitive historical and environmental areas before construction/ development.
Since this entire area of cultural, environmental and historical importance will be changed due to this development, it is crucial for future generations to be able to look back on what is one of the most important sites in the Western Hemisphere. Historical and cultural foundations of the Virgin Islands should be preserved as a living part of our community life and development in order to give a sense of how we came to be.
The ecosystem that makes up Botany Bay, the ancestral human remains at Botany Bay and the ruins of Botany Bay: all of these things, are no less important to the people of the Virgin Islands than the dollar is to the Virgin Islands.
Unfortunately we have become the ones catering to everyone else; many of us have forgotten the legacy of how we came to be here. Since Estate Botany Bay was purchased decades ago the people of the Virgin Islands have again been denied access to cultural and historical opportunities.
In this day of modern technology there is no reason why Botany Bay, as it is, cannot be videotaped and archived for future Virgin Islanders. We must give our children a sense of belonging and heritage. Without this we will continue to be strangers in our own land.
As demands for land and development grow, we continue to place more value on momentary means instead of taking care and passing on our cultural, environmental and historical resources to our children. They are depending on us to safeguard their past and provide them a future. Some already say it's too late, but I believe we must find a way to strike a balance that includes the needs of the present and conservation of our culture, environment and history.
Caroline Browne
St. Thomas

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