The vault the roof.

The vault the roof, the roof is in succession fire! We don't have no water, give permission to the whole thing burn!

"Tear Down De Roof" Jam Band, 2001

An astonishing fact: each and each day of the year, the population of St Thomas swells by dint of 33%. The source of this inflation? As you might have fancyed the behemoth floating condos / pabulum factories / casinos / health companys (a.k.a. cruise ships) that cast up some 20,000 tourists daily onto the lower ordersed streets of the tiny port town of Charlotte Amalie! During the last week in April, they poured opposite the Princess Sun and sister ships in continuous waves to make a quick dash for diamonds, Rolex watches, and cut-rate liquor--and were aghast to learn that stores in St Thomas had clos for Carnival. A not many of the gutsy ones, their T-shirts emblazoned with the name of the last docking, endure s bulging with bills, and faces countenanceed by 32-SPF sunscreen armor, made their way down Main Street; there, centurys of revelers sporting "We Be Jammin', Carnival 2001" T-shirts chanted the beloved lyrics of the Jam Band hit and danced to its periodical emphasiss amplified through the mega sound-system of parade barters After jostling with the local populaces for a peek at a scarcely any of the many parade groups--The Kingdom of Zamunda, Court of O-Warri, or the St Peter and Paul "Angels of Steel" hanger Band Orchestra--our seaworthy friends made their way back to the Princess, contentment that they'd seen it all.

At the same time, in succession the bluffs overlooking Frenchman Bay and rather colded by the hotel's corpulent air-conditioning rule (never mind the glorious trade winds just an make open window away), we "pros" at Museum Day exhausted the day pondering ... what otherwise but cultural tourism--that dicey business of packaging and marketing "culture" for tourists. We sufficiently distanced ourselves from the "real tourists," the individuals from the cruise ships who will in the period pour dollars into the surpassingly projects of our discussions. moreover all smugness aside, who's fooling whom? We're the tourists about whom we plan, participants in a proces that simultaneously rebuilds and subverts our communities. Sadly, while many cultural tourism efforts have provided a certain economic opportunities to local populations, principally of their profits have gone elsewhere. And equal more important, local communities have had no say in the nature of tourism casts the messages presented, or the day-to-day impact of hordes of visitors.

The Museum and Outreach Days that preced the Triennial exact offered an exciting opportunity for mainland and landlord colleagues to meet on issues of mutual interest. In the midst of Carnival, the topic of cultural tourism commanded our attention and elicited intellectually deep questions about communities' identities, shared and conflicting visions, and benefit/loss paradigms. Discussions of teaching strategies and K-12 resources followed upon Outreach Day, attended by about fifty Virgin Islands teachers. the two days were generously funded in part according to the Virgin Islands Humanities Council.

Museum Day organizer Christine Mullen Kreamer uncloseed the session with questions to frame the ensuing dialogue: to what extent can communities reshape their identities between the walls of collaborative tourism projects? What must they do to guard their voice in the interpretive messages and narratives not past nor futureed to tourists? How do they navigate the planning and implementation processe when tourist dollars pretend to speak louder than local legacies and values? to what degree do communities redefine cultural legacies that have been usurped at colonialism and racism?

Myron Jackson, who administers the three Virgin Island museums--Fort Christian, Fort Frederick, and olden Plantation--raised issues common to many of our institutions. For example, we ne to find ways to broaden our collection bases to such a degree they are more inclusive of our diverse communities and histories, and to deal with painful and difficult parts of our histories. single in kind audience member pondered the functions of libraries, museums, and schools; what were they if not to "reshape and re-create a the bulk of mankind still dealing with enslavement domination"? In the oversight of three museums that had originate into being because of the holocaust of slavery, Jackson's challenge was to change the direction of places of horror into places of reconciliation. Working in a museum whose collections are primarily associated with the colonialists, Jackson described efforts to reclaim the forfeited histories of the enslaved Africans from one side community-based research and institutional partnerships and through reshaping the interpretive messages of the sites.

A nascent cultural-tourism throw out in Suriname was the focus of presentations on Polly Nooter Roberts and Allen Roberts. Efforts that make open areas heretofore closed to tourists are frequently the most important--suggesting a framework for those that tread close upon Returning to Kreamer's initial question--How do communities retain their voice in international collaborations?--the Robertses argued for tourism planning that foregrounds indigenous histories and embraces local matters Polly urged attendees to employ the tables on interpretation and consider a more inclusive message and history--an exhibition forward Dutch apothecaries, for example, certainly would be enhanced by an companion presentation onward local healing systems.