Lennox Honychurch

Lennox Honychurch (/ˈhʌnitʃɜːrtʃ/ HUN-ee-church; born 27 December 1952) is Dominica's most noted historian and a politician. He is well known for writing 1975's The Dominica Story: A History of the Island, the 1980s textbook series The Caribbean People, and the 1991 travel book Dominica: Isle of Adventure. Also an artist and a curator, he was largely responsible for compiling the exhibit information for The Dominica Museum in Roseau. Honychurch is the grandson of writer and politician Elma Napier.[1]

Lennox Honychurch
Born (1952-12-27) 27 December 1952
Portsmouth, Dominica, West Indies
Alma materSt. Hugh's College, Oxford University
Occupation(s)Historian, politician, artist, curator
Notable workThe Dominica Story (1975)
RelativesElma Napier (grandmother)
AwardsGolden Drum Award
Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence
Websitewww.lennoxhonychurch.com

Biography

Born in Portsmouth, Dominica, Lennox Honychurch can trace his lineage in the Caribbean back to the 1790s.[2]

Honychurch attended the St. Mary's Academy secondary school.[3] After publishing several works on the history of Dominica, he was awarded the Chevening Scholarship[4] to study at Oxford University, where he gained a PhD at St. Hugh's College.[3] He read for his MPhil and PhD in Anthropology and Museology in 1995.[5]

Honychurch's first job in the early 1970s was as a radio journalist, enabling him to reach out to locals about the island's history with a series of radio vignettes.[5]

Honychurch serves as a board member and founder of the Museum Association of the Caribbean.[2] He was instrumental in setting up Dominica's national museum, The Dominica Museum in Roseau, and has consulted at other museums and heritage sites throughout the Caribbean, including Betty's Hope plantation in Antigua, Fort Frederick in Grenada and Fort Charlotte in St Vincent.[5] He is developing an ecology and heritage center in the history buildings around Fort Shirley, an 18th-century garrison in Dominica's Cabrits National Park. This work includes training tour guides and providing education on sustainable, responsible tourism for communities around heritage sites.[6]

Political career

Honychurch served as a senator in the House of Assembly of Dominica from 1975 to 1979, as a member of the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP). When the DFP formed the government in 1980, he also served as Press Secretary to The Government of Dominica until 1981.[7]

Work as historian

Honychurch's writing describes the history of Dominica and includes The Dominica Story: A History of the Island, first published in 1975, Dominica: Isle of Adventure, published in 1991, a three-book series entitled The Caribbean People (1995), Dominica's Cabrits and Prince Rupert's Bay (2013),[8] and In the Forests of Freedom: The Fighting Maroons of Dominica (2017).

In addition to his books, Honychurch has published several academic articles and he organized the first international conference on Dominican writer Jean Rhys in 2004.

Honychurch is an expert in the First Peoples of the Caribbean and has collected archival material related to Amerindian-African contact.[6] His graduate theses focused on the contact and culture exchange that took place between the indigenous Kalinago people of the Lesser Antilles and the people who arrived from Europe and Africa.[4]

Work as artist

Honychurch is a poet and painter.[6] His murals adorn churches throughout Dominica, the main post office in Roseau, and the national museum. He is also a Carnival artist.[2]

Awards

On 9 April 2011, Honychurch was awarded the Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence, in the category of Arts and Letters.[9][10]

In 2012, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of the West Indies[11] and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the university.[4]

He is a recipient of the Golden Drum Award for preservation of Dominica's cultural heritage as well as the Dominica Sisserou Medal of Honour for his contribution to historical and archaeological research.[4]

Selected writings
  • The Dominica Story: A History of the Island (1975)
  • Dominica: Isle of Adventure (1991)
  • Caribbean Camera: A Journey Through the Islands (1992)
  • The Caribbean People (three-book series; 1995)
  • Dominica's Cabrits and Prince Rupert's Bay (2013)
  • In the Forests of Freedom: The Fighting Maroons of Dominica (2017)

References
  1. Lisa Paravisini, "Elma Napier's Black and White Sands at the Dominica literary festival", Repeating Islands, 16 August 2009.
  2. Sharon Almerigi (1 July 1995). "Lennox Honychurch: Love for an Island". Caribbean Beat Magazine. No. 15. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  3. Lisa Paravisini, "Dominica Times profiles Lennox Honychurch as he wins Sabga Award", Repeating Islands, 20 April 2011.
  4. "The UWI to host Inaugural Eastern Caribbean Lecture in Saint Lucia". sta.uwi.edu. 11 September 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  5. Raymond Ramcharitar (November–December 2011). "Lennox Honychurch: Icon of The Island". Caribbean Beat. No. 112.
  6. "Dr. Lennox Honychurch". ANSA Caribbean Awards for Excellence. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  7. "About me" Archived 8 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine, lennoxhonychurch.com, accessed 12 June 2008.
  8. "Dr. Lennox Honychurch Releases New Book", Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica, 28 August 2013.
  9. Michelle Loubon, "Laureates shine", Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, 17 April 2011.
  10. Ivette Romero, "Dominica's Lennox Honychurch Receives Award for Excellence", Repeating Islands, 19 April 2011.
  11. "Lennox Honychurch to receive UWI honourary doctorate", Dominica News Online, 30 July 2012.
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