Panellists at the town-hall meeting, with from left, osteoarchaeologist Felicia Fricke, interim director of St. Eustatius Center for Archaeological Research (SECAR) Alex Hinton, GR2021 director Ruud Stelten and programme director at the Department of Culture Natasha Radjouki.
ST. EUSTATIUS--A good-sized crowd came out to Monday’s informative town-hall meeting about the Golden Rock 2021 (GR2021) archaeological dig site at the Mike van Putten Youth Center/Lion’s Den.
The panel at the meeting was composed of GR2021 director Ruud Stelten, interim director of St. Eustatius Center for Archaeological Research (SECAR) Alex Hinton, osteoarchaeologist Felicia Fricke and programme director at the Department of Culture Natasha Radjouki.
Government Commissioner Alida Francis and deputy Government Commissioner Claudia Toet were also present to answer questions from the public pertaining to the public entity’s involvement with the project.
The evening was informative and interactive. During the question-and-answer session, interaction became very heated between some members of the public and the panellists, pertaining to the site and how it is being handled.
Some persons were not happy that the site was being disturbed, which they find disrespectful to the deceased.
Some people did not like the tone in which certain questions were answered during the town-hall meeting which was broadcast live on the public entity’s Facebook page. The meeting was scheduled to last one hour but went far over the allotted time.
Stelten stated that, should persons have questions they can always contact him.
