Series 1 of Research & Documentation
In 2014, traveling back to her native Surinamese roots to establish an on-going research and documentation project exploring the core of her identity in a country made up of 90% rainforest.
Along the journey, NVS was sent into the Amazon to visit Maroon villages and to the top of Suriname at Galibi beach with the Carib Indingeous tribe on a video and photo project commissioned from Surinamese Holistic Healer, Loraine Van Tuyl, PhD.
The Suriname Journal is does not end in 2014, Nicole Van Straatum is finding ways to further discover her heritage through personal and sourced experience, photography, writings, and interviews. Series 1 is only the first chapter of Nicole’s life-long voyage of cultural, historical, and individual understanding of being a second generation Surinamese-American.