Resistance, Refuge, Revival

The Indigenous Kalinagos of Dominica

by Lennox Honychurch

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Description

Shortlist, Non-fiction Category, 2025 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature

“I am honoured as a Kalinago leader to be part of this wonderful work as it relates to the history of our people.” – Irvince Auguiste, former Kalinago Chief.

“In this impressive book, Honychurch presents a history that emphasises a Kalinago perspective and shows the important role they have played in the complex social and cultural evolution of Dominica.” – Mark Hauser, Professor of Anthropology, Northwestern University.

Dominica is the only place in the Caribbean where the Kalinagos – the indigenous people of the region – were able to secure a portion of their own land after everywhere else had been taken from them.

Written by a Dominican whose knowledge of the Kalinagos is unsurpassed, it sheds new light on how they shifted identities – from the early years of resistance to European colonisation, through tactical withdrawal to a revival of traditions and respect in the 21st century.

Book Details

Publisher:	Papillote Press
Cost:	£15.99
Publish Date:	19 September 2024
Format:	Paperback
Ebook:	Yes
Language:	English
Pages	300
ISBN:	9781739130329
Category:	Historical

About the Author

Lennox Honychurch is a Dominican historian and anthropologist. He has published numerous academic papers and books on the history of Dominica and the Caribbean region. He was awarded his PhD from the University of Oxford on the material culture of the Kalinago people of Dominica. He is an expert on all aspects of Dominica’s history and culture, and his book The Dominica Story was the first history of the island.

The product of a life-time of engagement and decades of study, Lennox Honychurch’s Resistance, Refuge, Revival tells the history of the Kalinago people of Dominica with consummate skill and compassion. It instantly becomes the most authoritative book on the subject, to which both scholars and general readers will turn.

– Peter Hulme, emeritus Professor of Literature, University of Essex.

In 2016 historian/archaeologist/ anthropologist Arie Boomert published an excellent book, The Indigenous Peoples of Trinidad and Tobago From the First Settlers Until Today. Now Lennox Honychurch, with his new book, Resistance, Refuge, Revival: The Indigenous Kalinagos of Dominica (Papillote Press), has provided an authoritative but accessible study of Dominica’s First People…”

– Bridget Brereton

See the article from Trinidad Express

“Resistance Refuge Revival is the book you will now reach for to share the rich Indigenous history and culture of the Caribbean with those who are unaware of it. In defiance of narratives of absence and dismissive histories, Lennox Honychurch’s book encyclopaedically complies Wai’tukubuli’s, the Kalinago name for Dominica, abundant archaeological and historical record and centres it around the cultural continuity of its Indigenous Kalinago people. The book is written in an accessible language, yet engages in detailed and well sourced disciplinary discussions within anthropology, archaeology and history. Honychurch reports findings from a lifetime of exploring the island and consulting local texts and sources, richly illustrating his book with material culture, landscapes, diagrams and historical illustrations. Resistance Refuge Revival serves to inform both the casual reader interested in the Indigenous Caribbean, as well as the researcher seeking primary data and further reading.”

– an extract from the long review of Resistance, Refuge, Revival by Lennox Honychurch in Journal of Caribbean History (Volume 58, Number 2, 2024), by Oliver Antczak, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK.

“For both scholars and general readers, this clearly written book offers the most authoritative picture of the largest surviving group of Indigenous people in the Caribbean…. Throughout, [Lennox Honychurch] stresses continuities of adaptation and resistance: “To see the European arrival on Dominica and in the Lesser Antilles as a complete break with the past is a narrow view. It denies the Kalinagos the ability to recondition their traditional ways so as to meet new challenges to their cultural continuity. Even before the Europeans arrived, the Kalinagos had devised strategies to survive.”.”

– From Hispanic American Historical Review, November 2025. Review by Richard Price. “.

Videos

Book launch: Lennox Honychurch on the Kalinagos of Dominica

Fascinating talk by Dominica’s leading historian, Lennox Honychurch, about his new book, Resistance, Refuge, Revival: the Indigenous Kalinagos of Dominica.

Caribbean Seminar Series – Resistance, Refuge, Revival: The Indigenous Kalinagos of Dominica

“In this talk, distinguished Dominican historian and anthropologist Lennox Honychurch will discuss his latest book Resistance, Refuge, Revival: The Indigenous Kalinagos of Dominica, which tells their remarkable story. The book sheds new light on the Kalinagos and the shifts in their identities from the early years of resistance to European colonisation, through tactical withdrawal, to a revival of traditions and respect in the 21st century. Emphasising a Kalinago perspective, Honychurch shows the important role they have played in the complex social and cultural evolution of Dominica.”