Message from the Executive Director

What is a legacy? The dictionary defines it as ‘an amount of money or property left to someone in a will’ and more broadly as a long-lasting impact. If you choose to leave a legacy to a charitable organisation such as the Bermuda National Trust, both definitions will apply at the same time as your gift would provide an enduring benefit for Bermuda.

Many of our members and supporters would like to help strengthen the long-term viability of the Bermuda National Trust but are not in a position to make a substantial gift in their lifetime. A bequest by will does not affect your assets or cash flow during your lifetime and it is revocable – you can change the terms of your will at any time until death. A bequest can also take many forms. You can use your will to give a specific dollar amount, a percentage of your estate or a specific item such as land, artwork, investments or other assets.

Legacies to BNT are critical to the success of our mission to protect and promote Bermuda’s unique natural and cultural heritage. We have received some extraordinary bequests of property in the past, which we will hold in trust for everyone, forever. The majority of Trust properties are held inalienably and therefore cannot be sold or mortgaged. Of course, most people will leave their major assets to family, but even a small cash legacy to BNT can make a valuable contribution to the care of our lands and historic buildings.

We would all like to leave a positive legacy in the world, and a bequest to BNT would be one way to do that. When you are planning the disposition of your estate, I hope that you will consider it. Such gifts are enormously appreciated!

Karen Border

Executive Director

Time’s Running Out – Have You Got Your Raffle Tickets?

With just six weeks left until this year’s exciting raffle, don’t miss your chance to win one of four incredible prizes, including an electric Mini Cooper! Other prizes include a Vespa Motorbike, a $500 BELCO voucher, a $500 Supermart voucher, and two round-trip tickets on BermudAir.

Tickets are $100, and with only 1,100 tickets printed, your chances to win are better than ever!

Where to Purchase Tickets:

Online : Click the link below or visit our website to purchase your ticket online. You’ll automatically receive your ticket number and entry confirmation.
In Person: Visit us at Waterville, 2 Pomander Road, Monday – Friday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, or call 236-6483 to process your payment by phone.
At the Globe Museum: Tickets are available at the Trustworthy store at the Globe Museum in St. George's (check our site for opening hours).
Through Other Supporting Partners!

The draw will be held on Tuesday, December 10, at 10:00 am at Waterville, 2 Pomander Road. Watch the event live on Facebook to see if you're a winner!

Click here to purchase your ticket online!

Natural Heritage Updates

Myles Darrell, Head of Natural Heritage

We may be isolated, but we are not alone

Globalisation has taken on many guises over the past few decades. Its initial thrust was economic – but nothing emphasises globalisation like climate change, which affects us all, wherever we are. In the natural heritage world, the necessity to work together, sharing ideas and solutions, is clear. It’s the only way we can hope for any form of success in the face of this mammoth challenge to our planet.

In June’s newsletter I told you about the International National Trusts Organisation (INTO) Small Islands Incubator programme in England, where many useful connections were made. While the climate and landscape in England and Bermuda are obviously different, we do face some similar challenges. And it turns out that not only are we able to take away ideas from these gatherings; we are able to share some of our good practices which colleagues from other countries are happy to adopt, not least our volunteer programmes!

Basil Stow (right) with Myles Darrell (left) and Ronald Burchall of BNT.

One of the leaders in England was Basil Stow, Ranger at The National Trust in Somerset (England!). Coincidentally, his father is the Priest-in-Charge at Holy Trinity Church, Hamilton Parish, the Rev Canon John Mark Stowe. In addition, Basil’s great-grandfather was the Rector at St Peter’s Church, St George’s in the 1940s and 50s.

In October, Basil came to visit his family and I was able to show him around some of our properties: Paget Marsh, Spittal Pond and the Sherwin Nature Reserve. He also came out to our community day at Eve’s Pond and planted trees. Thank you, Basil; we really appreciated your interest, your ideas and your volunteer work! We look forward to working together again in the future.

This leads to our collaboration with Noelle Young, environmental activist and founder of the Youth Delegation of Bermuda. Noelle was keen to attend November’s 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan to make sure Bermuda’s voice was heard. Thanks to our connection with INTO, we were able to secure her access to the Blue Zone where formal discussions take place. As well as sitting on two panels for the UK Overseas Territories Association, Noelle will be helping INTO at the conference. She is grateful to BNT for entrusting her with this “incredible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”. We are confident that she will do Bermuda proud.

Noelle Young

Cultural Heritage Updates

Dr. Charlotte Andrews, Head of Cultural Heritage

Unsettled Freedom

We gave our time and lent a curatorial hand to Unsettled Freedom, a stunning new mural by Bermudian artist Shanna Hollis on King’s Square, St. George’s, in the heart of Bermuda’s World Heritage Site.

We worked with Shanna, the Bermuda Tourism Authority (which sponsored the mural in partnership with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings), the Corporation of St. George, and Kristin White of Long Story Short to support Shanna’s vision for the three-panel mural, which her brother Nahshon also worked on. The mural features Joseph Hayne Rainey and BNT’s Tucker House where he worked, now an African Diaspora Heritage Trail (ADHT) site.

We also provided content for the mural’s interpretative panel and QR-code linked article and chronology where you can see each of the panels in detail.

Shanna and Nahshon Hollis in front of their mural at King's Square, St George's.

Photo Credit: Dion Easton Jr.

RISE & Fall

As we gear up this Fall to embark on the 2024-2030 Trust Museums Plan in earnest next year we are preparing to ensure our Re-imagining International Sites of Enslavement (RISE) programme is fully integrated into the overhaul of our three museums.

Collaboration is crucial to expand the stories our museums share and to diversify the curators and other storytellers who tell them. We have already learned and benefitted so much from our experience of multiple INTO RISE sessions and exchanges with an international cohort, collaborating with the ADHT and CURB, putting enslavement records online with the Bermuda Archives and Conchita Ming, RISE-related Trust Talks by Kristin White & Yesha Townsend, Dr. Angela Barry and Rashida Godwin, and meetings and communications with other scholars and artists.

Several RISE Advisors, who are generously donating their time and expertise as Africologists, activists, authors, curators, educators, historians, and tour operators have agreed to help ensure the museum outcomes and curatorial process behind them is accurate, equitable and sensitive.

We are asking donors to support paid community co-curators so that Black Bermudians or other people of African descent are making the choices and providing the voices concerning the representation of their identities, community and heritage by the Trust. This co-curation will begin with the Rainey exhibit at what will become Tucker Rainey Museum.

Rashida Godwin presenting her Trust Talk on ‘Decolonising Language’ at Waterville.

Collecting Heritage Views

Bermudian PhD student Xander Cook is looking for ‘public opinion of Bermudian cultural heritage’ for his doctoral research project at Cardiff University. Please consider taking a few minutes to share your views by completing Xander’s online survey here.

Heritage Education Updates

Anna Stevenson, Heritage Education Manager

October saw all P4 public school students take part in the BNT online Learning Journey – From Shipwreck Survivor to Settler Society, which took the children on a voyage from pre-settlement times, right up to the rule of the first three governors. Students examined primary physical evidence, met and interviewed Elizabeth Persons real-life Sea Venture survivor, and considered the challenges faced by the earliest settlers.

During half-term we ran our ever-popular Funtastic Fall camp. This year, children used old wine-crates, paint, string, glue and wild imaginations to create the most fabulous haunted houses. And on that theme, we also visited spooky Verdmont where campers listened to stories about the house’s after-hours guests!

As a reminder to teachers and educators, fieldtrips and learning experiences can be booked at School Field Trips - The Bermuda National Trust

FUN FAMILY ACTIVITIES FOR FALL

Built Heritage: Postmaster Perot's Rubber Tree

The rubber tree at Par-la-Ville when photographed by N.E. Lusher sometime after

he opened his photographic business in the 1880s.

By Linda Abend and Margie Lloyd, Bermuda National Trust

Most of the articles in this series have been about buildings at risk but this article covers the loss of a much photographed and admired nearly 200-year-old tree in Hamilton.

Click here to read more about its history.