James Ellsmoor of Island Innovation on the SICRI’s “island conversations” podcast with Special Guest Helena Bennett
Hello and welcome to the SICRI networks Island conversations Podcast Series. My name is James Ellsmoor and I’m the CEO of Island Innovation. And I will be today’s guest host for what I think is going to be a fascinating conversation about cultural heritage and preservation. Today we are traveling to an island, that I’m sure many of you have heard about, St Helena in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, and I am delighted to welcome our special guest, Helena Bennett, who is the director of the St Helena National Trust. Good morning Helena. How are you? How is everything on the island today?
Helena Bennett
Good morning, James. Thanks for hosting me. Everything is bright and sunny on St. Helena today.
Fantastic. I have an introduction here about you, and then we’ll dive into some questions.
So, Helena is a born and raised St. Helenian or Saint, as people on St Helena refer to themselves. Growing up on the island surrounded by the ocean, marine conservation was Helena’s first love, and she spent many of her early years volunteering in marine protection. Helena has got experience around the South Atlantic as, like many young Saints, she ventured to the Falkland Islands, Ascension, and to the UK to work outside of the island, but eventually came home to St. Helena and everything it has to offer.
Helena played a role in the St. Helena auditing arena and with the pinnacle in setting up the St Helena government Internal Audit Office, introducing governance and ethical assessment and the risk management framework. However, the ocean, which is St. Helena’s biggest attraction, remained a priority to her, and after 10 years of auditing, Helena joined the economic development agency, as the tourism manager and later, the Director of Tourism. Here, Helena was able to work with the local government and private sector in setting up best practices for, not only marine tourism but also land-based tourist activities. And under her watch, tourism development focused on St. Helena’s Natural built and cultural heritage, which I think is what we’re going to get into today.
When the economic development project came to an end, Helena was successful for the position of Director at the St. Helena National Trust, where she remains today. And the trust’s remit is to promote, conserve, educate and advocate for the island’s natural built and cultural heritage. Since being in the post, Helena has focused on increasing the importance of conserving the built and cultural heritage alongside the continued natural heritage work carried out in the marine and terrestrial environment. Helena is the chairperson for the Liberated African Advisory Committee who is working on interpreting the island’s role in slavery and the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, following the reburial of 325 liberated Africans from the island (and liberated in quote I should say, Africans) airport project. The question of identity and ancestry is a personal interest of Helena. And when international people tried to place her, Helena response is, I’m a saint. I love that introduction. Thank you for sharing that. And maybe, I mean, there’s so much we can dig into in this conversation, Helena. Perhaps we can start by setting the scene a little bit. So, I shared a bit about your history. Maybe for those who might be less familiar with the island, you can give a bit of a broad overview that expands on what I just said about the island’s history and some of the key points, from your perspective, that people should know about.