_notes: [Jona] - Welcome, introductions — Jona (researcher), Thunnis (project leader), both Huygens Institute / KNAW - Sranan Story Collective: a citizen science project on Surinamese heritage we are just beginning - Not a success story — structural choices, tensions, and genuinely open questions - → hand over to Thunnis after slide 2

_notes: [Jona] - A piece of theory that frames everything — Smith (2006): "authorised heritage discourse" — heritage defined by professionals, communities as audiences not authors - Central question: how to design co-creation on colonial heritage before the scope is fixed? - Ideally decide together; in practice tied to funders, timelines, KNAW grant (Nov 2025–Jun 2028) - Stats: ±355k diaspora, HDSC + STM as foundation, the "?" = how to involve communities - → "With that framing, I'll hand over to Thunnis"

_notes: [Thunnis] - The diaspora is not one group — overlapping communities, intertwined but distinct histories - Six groupings on screen; categories not rigid — ethnic labels partly a legacy of colonial administration - Timeline: 2013 UN report → Zwarte Piet debate → 2020s digitisation → Dec 2022 government apology → now: CBs co-designing scope - A shared past, not a shared experience — also involves non-Surinamese Dutch, descendants of colonial actors, newer migrants with no colonial tie

_notes: [Thunnis] - Three drivers from HDSC engagement - Genealogy: strongest motivator — tracing roots, finding ancestors - Social justice: challenging erasure, restoring visibility — coexists with genealogy - Archival puzzles: intellectual pleasure of deciphering old handwriting - Motivations overlap; key insight: growing interest in moving from contribution to authority

_notes: [Thunnis] - HDSC: slave registers + civil records 1830–1950, open access, community-funded, community-demanded - Forums, events, training → collective ownership; partners: National Archives Suriname, SSG, others - But: scope and framing still anchored in institutional decisions - Bonney (2009): contributory → collaborative → co-created; HDSC = collaborative, CSI aims for co-created - The gap: communities shape WHAT gets studied, not just HOW

_notes: [Thunnis] - STM: Linked Open Data — maps + registers + images connected, makes ordinary people visible - But the architecture is not neutral — organised by colonial categories: race, legal status, ownership - The map: Paramaribo 1846, ethnicity per address from the Wijkregister — powerful but reflects colonial logic - CSI needs to make these embedded choices visible and open to revision

_notes: [Thunnis] - Four source types linked: portraits, slave registers, almanac entries, plantation houses - A name in a register becomes someone with a face, a household, a history - This is what community members want — their ancestors as real people - But: all sources created by colonial administrators — the tension carries through

_notes: [Thunnis] - The puzzle: records created by colonial administrators — people documented as property - How to start a CS project without reproducing top-down dynamics? - Two opposing risks: reproducing colonial dynamics (extraction, consultation trap, tokenism) vs. overcorrecting into paralysis (refusing to act while communities wait) - Our approach: make tensions explicit, navigate together with CBs — reflexivity as method

_notes: [Thunnis] - THE TRAP: define scope → build tool → ask "do you like this?" — feedback ≠ co-creation - OUR AIM: STM data as input, not the final product → co-design scope together → iterate - Critical difference: co-design is happening now, before objectives are fixed - → "I'll hand back to Jona"

_notes: [Jona] - Five roles: 3 community builders, advisory board (to be established), research team - CBs are paid — important for equity; included at start phase, shaping vision not executing a pre-set agenda - Connectors, not representatives — 3 people ≠ 355,000 - Acknowledged gap: Maroon, Indigenous, Chinese not directly represented — how to address is part of the process

_notes: [Jona] - Four genuinely unresolved questions: interaction, narratives, gaps, audience - What might emerge: new collections, visualisations, storytelling, or beyond digital — oral history, exhibitions - Honest answer: we don't know yet — that uncertainty is by design

_notes: [Jona] - Three ethics areas: labour (CBs paid, but broader volunteer labour?), data ownership (sensitive colonial records, privacy for descendants), institutional constraints (community direction vs. funder/KNAW) - Traditional metrics useful but insufficient for co-created heritage - Better measures: trust, capacity, authority, justice, emotion — emotion is not a side effect

_notes: [Jona] - Four genuine questions — looking for input - Last question avoids coloniser/colonised binary; many Dutch citizens have no direct colonial tie - A few minutes for discussion — these answers will genuinely inform our design

_notes: [Jona] - Thank you — interested in continuing these conversations - surinametijdmachine.org — reach out anytime