Education is the overarching purpose of Finding Home. The Bahamas is and has been in a precarious situation with cultural assimilation due to our small population size, large tourist industry, heavy foreign investment, and lack of heritage professionals or consistent interest groups. Prehistoric and historic sites have been tampered with and undocumented artifacts taken out of the country by archaeologists, non-archaeologists and looters since the late 1800s. In an effort to curb this loss, the Antiquities Act was passed in 1998. This succeeded the National Trust Act (1959) and Public Records Act (1971) with respect to the management of cultural resources, to form a body that would better address cultural resource management.
As heritage is passed on from one generation to another, public education is crucial in heritage protection. Cultural education from an early age provides the foundation for an enlightened and informed citizenry and facilitates the act of transference. Check out our archaeology and natural history learning pages to follow some of the studies being done here at home.