Island(er)s at the Helm end conference:
New perspectives on climate challenges in the (Dutch) Caribbean
New perspectives on climate challenges in the (Dutch) Caribbean
What's in a policy, what is in a poem? Poetically informed participatory ethnography as a method for Caribbean public policy
Lysanne Charles is an artist, educator and activist whose work has centered on empowerment of marginalized groups across issues using tools in education, the arts and activism. She is a native of the Dutch Caribbean islands of Saba and St. Maarten, with family ties to St. Eustatius, Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba. Lysanne has bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina Pembroke and masters degrees in Sociology and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Amsterdam Graduate Schools of Science.
Presentation What's in a policy, what is in a poem? Poetically informed participatory ethnography as a method for Caribbean public policy, by Island(er)s at the Helm researcher Lysanne Charles, MSc (KITLV)
This presentation explores the (im)possibilities of meaningful co-creation in climate-related public policy across the SSS islands (Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Martin), where colonial entanglements, shifting accountabilities, and layered crises shape how participation is requested, resisted, and withdrawn. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research and my own experience as a public policymaker, I engage both public officials and community members as interlocutors navigating mistrust, burnout, and bureaucratic fatigue, yet still expressing a desire for something better.
The research is grounded in Poetically Informed Participatory Ethnography (PIPE), where poetry operates not as an accessory, but as a site of knowledge. It brings forward what policy language often cannot or does not hold: fear of retribution, the silences of survival, the painfulness of resistance, and the everyday labor of making do. In spaces where people express exhaustion from being repeatedly asked for input without follow-through, this work sits with the discomforts that emerge at various levels. It asks: What does it mean to meaningfully co-create public policy in island territories where critique is risky, and where both the governed and governing perceive themselves to be under strain? What can, and does, care look like in the shadow of consultation, that lingering space shaped by unmet promises, mistrust, and the fatigue of repeated but unfulfilled requests for participation? Emerging from this research is a tentative roadmap for reimagining public engagement, one rooted in slowness, safety, cultural practice, and relational accountability. Anchored in the works of Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Ruha Benjamin, Tricia Hersey, George Lamming, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Yarimar Bonilla, Sara Ahmed and Farhana Sultana, this is a call to attend to the emotional, ethical, and colonial weight of institutionalized participation.
This work is offered as a reflection on policy, poetry, and the possibility of showing up differently, for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working on public engagement and participation in politically non-sovereign, big ocean/small island emerging states.