With the exception of professionals involved in culture, the average
person rarely thinks of his or her life in terms of how it interlocks
with the culture of society. Most people simply fit themselves into
the living and thinking of their society and their age as painlessly
as they can, getting on with life and its many tasks, finding little
to tear them between the past they have come to know and the future
them have come to expect.
However, the writings of Herodotus, the father of History, remind us
that everything is in a perpetual state of flux. Instinctively we know
this to be true. Many in our society are involved in the making and
remaking of tradition in our society in many diverse areas. This making
and remaking of tradition is a part of our culture and helps us define
who we are and who we are going to be.
With Bermuda in such a state of rapid and significant flux, it seems
worthwhile to start a discussion on the subject of our culture
and where it may be leading us immediately. The alternative to understanding
where the present cultural frontiers are in Bermuda right now is that
we may become fatally overcommitted to a path that proves indigestible
to us as a people. Where better to measure ourselves culturally than
in print, since print itself, once such a revolutionary medium, is
now giving way to computers and a new technological revolution.
My thanks to the Bermuda Communications Directory 2006 for the invitation
to write and to start what I hope will be a broad dialogue on the subject
of Bermuda’s culture – a difficult task in such a short
space.
The last
decade or two represent, as far as I can comprehend, a certain unity of the
beginnings of an era which in the future will be neatly classified in the history
books. Even with all our journalistic self-consciousness, some important trends
and events have remained beyond sight and are in need of our observation, both
in detail and on a larger scale.
The conceptual framework that I would choose to define culture on the
island of Bermuda is extremely broad. Culture then is more than just
what comes to mind from the category sometimes defined as “high
culture”. This grouping includes architecture, the visual arts,
theatre arts, movie making, and literature, to name but some of its
pastimes. I wish for a discussion about Bermuda’s culture not
to stop there. I see no reason why it should not also include sports,
most of our traditions, science and technology, the media (such as
newspapers, magazines and books, radio and television), educational
institutions, Government and the private sector. Here we think of soccer
and cricket, gombey troupes, the Bermuda Biological Station for Research,
the changes at the Bermuda College, the Bermuda Maritime Museum, the
extensive output of printed matter for such a small community, the
arrival now of two political parties who can lay claim to having governed
Bermuda – a radical departure in and of itself – and the
exponential growth of the “city” of Hamilton and large
businesses in Bermuda in the private sector.
In practise, the concept of our culture and its definition is contained
in all of these (and, of course, many more facets) and, further, it
overlaps another concept and that is the concept of our identity. A
sense of culture and identity are very closely related. This sense
of culture and identity is being challenged by mass communications
and economic and commercial considerations which oftentimes find themselves
at odds with attempts to grow our culture. Perhaps we should, in the
face of such enormous challenges like these just give up any attempt
to hone our culture and identity in a carefully crafted fashion? This
is not truly what I am suggesting. Quite by contrast, I suggest culture
and our identity needs to be shored-up and protected.
Within Bermuda
there seems to be little determined or concerted attempt to develop a particular
kind of culture and identity which we might call a “national cultural
sovereignty”. Instead, we seem to be collecting and getting bits and
pieces of culture derived from overseas. This is not a bad thing and may even
be said to be wonderful for the exposure to new experiences it brings.
The
problem for some is that any idea of a national cultural sovereignty is not
being enhanced but being diminished. Stated in other terms, some might argue
that we are becoming more fragmented not less. Particularly lately, cultural
products seem to be so often imported. Has “the
Bermudian way” stepped to one side to make way for these? Is
this just a change of scene as happens with each generation, albeit
this latter one quite unique, or is it my imagination that everything
seems to be operating many times faster than it did just a decade ago
and now, too, seems to include many more variables?
Welcomed (by most)
guests culturally are the Bermuda Festival and the Bermuda Film Festival,
which seem to go off like clockwork each season. Some of this, while
very pleasant, seems to be very much at odds with something ever fully
Bermudian and therefore “ours”. The
collections of The Bermuda National Gallery’s permanent “African” and “European” collections
as well as the Masterworks Collection of “Bermudian” art,
where most of the artists hail from the US, Canada and the UK and define
for us, as it were holding up a mirror from overseas, the Bermuda of
yesteryear, seem further cases in point.
Today the facility with which
a cultural product can be offered and utilized is more instantaneous,
of lower cost and is very effective, plus it does not require decades
or centuries of nurturing before it arrives. The barriers to potentially
global cultural dialogue have come way down. The tragic paradox is
that those pursuing cultural goals on the ground in Bermuda and wishing
to contribute to potentially new-born national cultural sovereignty find themselves
even having the consciousness and desire to contribute to achieving such an
end, in an often untenable position as economic pressures and the new efficiencies
of immediacy and super free movement across frontiers take over.
This leaves
us with an “imported cultural lens” through
which to view who we are. Plus there is enormous pressure, which is
only increasing, on those who would be the creators of something truly
from the Bermudian soul. These observations are intended not to be
negatively critical but to serve as a stock-taking, or a springboard
for further discussion, or certainly an attempt to raise awareness
in the cultural community as to where we all stand with regard to what
we feel, I presume, very strongly about. These observations are not
about judgement but about communication and in as far as this is the
case they are offered as an attempt to provide a useful service and
a useful beginning to dialogue.
Culture
in my definition, fully encompasses the economy too, including our perspectives
on life and work encouraged by the economy and the patterns of life it demands.
The market locally, whether it be the private individual or the private sector,
has finite resources to maintain and economically develop tens or hundreds
of individuals involved professionally in “our “ culture who would
in time create a truly national cultural sovereignty. Here too, we seem to
depend considerably on those from overseas, placing enormous value on the “imported
professional”, a boundary fight internal to the cultural industry in
Bermuda which you may or may not find yourself supporting or rejecting.
If there is too much paternalism from any sector, be it the tourist
industry (a market which has largely dried up), the private sector
(according to reports I have heard, there is much belt-tightening in
this area) or the government, it always seems to end not so well with
unease between the parties in discussion or negotiation as expectations
run high and an end to it all eventually arrives.
This may sound fatalistic but sooner or later everybody’s funds
run out. Meanwhile the selectivity of our large economy (for such a
small island) causes much frustration in our culture as many still
struggle with finding their place, or as particularly exemplified among
the youth where “gang” culture seems to be taking root.
Consider this perspective, though: the burden of our culture and identity
is not that it derives its lead from these and other contributory forces
but it is in and of itself the primary element under which these various
parts of our community life grow.
Clearly, certain areas in our culture need to be given encouragement
to grow while others need to be constrained. To which and to whom we
give this encouragement gives meaning and significance to our concerns
for which areas of community life we intend to develop. Money is only
one form of support we can give but is often very important for the
basic necessities of our cultural life to be sustained. The cultural
values and goals to which one lends financial support and how this
reflects one’s own self-awareness or the self-awareness of others
is truly extremely important. Museums, art galleries, festivals and
awards as further examples give us a continual possibility for rewarding
and encouraging meritorious cultural activity and offer valuable incentives
beyond money alone.
It seems
that culture has within it, in our part of the world, an enormous potential
for unlocking creative power, if only we stick to a plurality of expression
and opinion. It seems that in Bermuda today we are walking down some paths
where the outcome can only be extremely questionable at best.
What if I were to say to you that, in certain areas of life, we may
not (in the future) even take freedom of speech for granted? (Who is
to say that freedom of speech is not part of our culture?)
However, even here there seems to be a chink in Bermuda’s armour
as Cuba seems to be our recent friend in the West Indies, challenging
the basics of our western liberal democratic tradition, not so much
by our outstretched hand in her direction but by what it says to our
trusted and true friends, and their friendship established over hundreds
of years. Surely, this is just transparent for what it is: an attempt
to gain negotiating room with a friend by flirting with the enemy.
Then there is freedom of information and the many other freedoms we
take for granted. How many freedoms do we have in our culture and how
well are they protected? Vigilance over our culture and identity truly
does matter and it matters a great deal. Surely we believe in Bermudian
ownership and control and access to cultural works. Then what are we
doing extending a hand to a country that does not even believe in the
right to own property at all, never mind gain free access to it, unless
of course we feel so secure in our identity that we can weather any
storm that the world throws at us.
Does everybody in Bermuda understand the inherent
risks of our government being “nice” to a country that routinely locks up cultural
ambassadors (artists, reporters etc.)? Is this a posture we wish to introduce
into our culture and our either on a temporary or permanent basis? I,
personally, see no need for it. How we culturally define ourselves
today will impact with great force who we become tomorrow. We should
raise our awareness on the island of the culture of which we form part
and see if each person can’t help form a better Bermuda. I hope
that we can all do what is right for us all.
Nicholas Lusher Fine Art, dealers in Works of Art
for nearly 25 years.
