Indigenous: Remains Repatriated By The Netherlands To Caribbean Island Of St. Eustatius - The World News

ORANJESTAD, St. Eustatius —

The small aircraft descended through the Caribbean blue, touching down on the short runway of F.D. Roosevelt Airport. It was a routine landing for the pilots, but for the island of St. Eustatius—locally known as Statia—it was a historic arrival. ORANJESTAD, St

The Netherlands has officially repatriated the remains of nine Indigenous people to the Caribbean island of St. Eustatius, marking a significant step in cultural restoration and the recovery of colonial-era history. The remains, unearthed near F.D. Roosevelt Airport in the 1980s and held by Leiden University, represent a broader effort to reclaim ancestral, pre-colonial heritage. For more details, visit The Art Newspaper . It was a routine landing for the pilots,

“They are not going into a glass case,” explained Clyde van Putten, commissioner of culture for St. Eustatius. “They are going into the earth. That is the final repatriation. From dust to dust, but now in the right dust—the dust of their homeland.” For more details

: The remains and related artifacts—including ceramics and shell food remains—were excavated between 1984 and 1989 at the F.D. Roosevelt Airport in Oranjestad by researchers from Leiden University .

: The remains belong to the Carib (Kalinago) people, who inhabited the island before European colonization.