Taíno peoples had inhabited the Greater Antilles for many centuries, building complex agricultural societies on the Caribbean-island chain, when Christopher Columbus landed there in 1492.
For the Taíno, however, disaster quickly followed as Spain rapidly colonized the region, devastating its Indigenous populations in the process. Within half a century, Spanish officials believed that the Taíno were extinct — a conclusion that was widely regarded as fact into the 20th century.
In recent decades, historical records and family and regional traditions demonstrated that Taíno cultures had endured and survived colonization. Today, people throughout the Caribbean, the United States (including in New Haven), and elsewhere identify as Taíno and cherish their Indigenous heritage.
“Caribbean Indigenous Resistance / Resistencia indígena del Caribe ¡Taíno Vive!,” a bilingual exhibition now on view at the Yale Peabody Museum through June 21, shares the story of Taíno cultural survival by examining the region’s history and the impact and legacy of Caribbean Indigenous knowledge throughout the world.
A traveling exhibition created by the Smithsonian Institution, “¡Taíno Vive!” is supplemented by displays the Peabody developed with members of the local Taíno community that highlight objects from the museum’s anthropological collections.
“Taíno culture has roots in Puerto Rico, Haiti, Jamaica, and other ancestral homes throughout the Caribbean,” said Erika Edwards, the Peabody’s interim director. “The culture is also strongly represented in New Haven and across Connecticut. We are delighted to work alongside Taíno cultural practitioners to help share the history and significance of this community.”
Here are five things to know about the exhibition:
1. The Peabody Museum partnered with Taíno cultural experts in deciding which collection materials to display and what stories to share.
While preparing to host the traveling exhibition, the museum’s staff worked closely with Stephanie Bailey and Luis Sanakori Ramos, members of AraYeke Yukayek, a New York-based Taíno community that seeks to preserve and strengthen Taíno culture.
Bailey, an archaeologist and “cacique” (tribal chief), and Ramos, a journalist and “behique” (medicine person), made multiple trips to the Peabody’s collection facility on West Campus to view potential materials for the exhibition. They collaborated with museum staff to create the displays accompanying the Smithsonian’s materials, selected objects for display, and wrote text for the labels (presented in Spanish and English).
“Collaborating with an inspiring team dedicated to bridging culture and academia, and to centering Indigenous perspectives within museum spaces, has been a deeply meaningful experience and a model for how institutions can honor and uplift the communities they represent,” said Bailey.
This community-centered approach will inform how the museum prepares exhibitions moving forward, especially when presenting stories concerning cultural heritage, said Kailen Rogers, the Peabody’s associate director of exhibitions.
“We are deeply grateful to Stephanie and Sanakori sharing their knowledge, creativity, and passion for Taíno culture with us,” said Rogers. “Collaborating with them elevated our work, allowing us to present together a compelling story of Indigenous legacy and endurance that is resonating with the museum’s guests.”
2. Visitors will become acquainted with powerful spiritual forces.
Taíno spirituality venerates 12 principal “cemi’no” — sacred beings believed to influence the physical and spiritual worlds. Each of the 12 spirits oversees a crucial aspect of the world and cosmos. For example, a cemi’no known as Marohu manages the sun; Atabey tends to rivers, lakes, and ponds; Guabancex controls wind, water, and hurricanes.
The exhibition features objects relevant to the veneration of cemi’no. A three-pointed stone effigy from the Dominican Republican that dates to between 900 and 1,200 C.E. represents Yocahu Bagua Maorocoti, the cemí (the singular version of cemi’no) responsible for yuca, a staple crop in Taíno culture. People would bury three-pointed stones in their gardens to ensure a bountiful harvest, although the example on display was likely used for ceremonial purposes, according to the exhibit label.
An interactive display, one of several included in the exhibition, features a series of a dozen discs embedded in the gallery wall with a colorful illustration of a cemí on one side and the name and description of the depicted deity on the other. The illustrations were taken from a children’s book that Bailey coauthored to educate her daughter and other young people about Taíno spirituality.
“Something that cements a living, breathing, thriving culture is access to systems of spirituality,” Bailey said. “So, having the ability to showcase these items demonstrates how we’re still living and maintaining our communities today.”
3. Objects on view offer insight into Taíno society and government.
The exhibition includes an example of a “duho” or “dujo”, a ceremonial seat symbolizing status and authority. A community’s cacique (principal chief) and behique (medicine person) would sit on these wooden or stone chairs during the cohoba ceremony, a scared ritual in which the leaders communed with ancestors and cemi’no after ingesting a hallucinogenic snuff made from the ground up seeds of the cohoba tree. (Mortar and pestles used in the preparation of the snuff are also on display.)
The duho, which dates from 1290 to 1400 C.E. and is from the West Indies, is a narrow wooden board that’s been curved to form a narrow seat and backrest. Bailey was on a trip to Puerto Rico with her mother when they came upon a duho on display in a museum. The object stirred childhood memories in her grandmother, who recalled seeing relatives using a similar chair. The experience renewed her grandmother’s connection to the Taíno culture, Bailey said.
“That was her ‘aha’ moment,” she said. “Seeing that piece helped her understand why strengthening cultural continuity within our community is so important to me.”
4. Students at a local high school got a hands-on lesson in Taíno agriculture.
Taíno people developed “conucos” — mounded gardens for growing yuca, maize, squash, beans, and other staples grouped together — on the principle that the different plants could support each other’s growth and keep the soils rich and fertile.
Students at the Sound School, a regional aquaculture/agriculture vocational high school in the City Point neighborhood of New Haven, got their hands dirty while planting and tending cunoco-inspired gardens adapted to the northeastern climate.
Carlos Torre, a professor at Southern Connecticut State University and former longtime member of New Haven’s Board of Education, worked with the students on the project.
“This is the Indigenous way of creating sustainable agriculture,” Torre said. “We asked the students to create one conuco. They planted five of them. They were so gung-ho about participating.”
A screen in the exhibition gallery documents the students’ experiences.
5. The exhibition follows Taíno culture into the afterlife.
A display case contains objects associated with Taíno funerary practices and “Coabey,” the spiritual realm where souls reside after death. Among them, a stone canine figure from Haiti represents Opiyelguobiran, the cemí who guards the entrance to Coabey.
The opposite side of the glass display case features tributes to deceased individuals who were instrumental in the movement to revitalize Taíno culture along with relatives of members of the movement. Bailey’s great grandmother is represented.
“Her knowledge of medicine and Indigenous ingenuity and her ability to raise up the community influenced my grandmother, who in turn, put those things in the front of my mind and into my heart.”
