Coastal erosion, depopulation, and the legacies of the transatlantic slave trade are reshaping life on islands from Scotland to the Caribbean, and this project connects those stories through museum collections and community knowledge. The research addresses a gap: while Scotland’s historical links to slavery are increasingly documented, the shared heritage of its west coast islands and Caribbean archipelagos has not been systematically studied through the lens of climate adaptation and decolonisation. If successful, the project could change how island museums, NGOs, and local governments collaborate on climate action—for example, by using heritage collections to inform coastal management plans or by integrating traditional ecological knowledge into youth-led climate justice initiatives. It also explores whether engaging with community heritage can measurably improve health and wellbeing, a link that is often asserted but rarely tested. The work is primarily fundamental research in environmental museology and memory studies, with no immediate engineering or policy output. However, similar cross-disciplinary heritage research has previously reshaped how institutions approach repatriation, sustainable tourism, and intergenerational knowledge transfer—outcomes that quietly influence how communities adapt to environmental and economic change.
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Islands are conventionally associated with romantic ideas of local distinctiveness and isolation, and yet those situated off the west coast of Scotland and the Caribbean share the growing problem of coastal erosion through rising sea levels and storm intensification, as well as economic recession, depopulation and inappropriate tourism development. Shared Island Stories considers past, present and future relationships between these archipelagos through museum and heritage studies, sustainable development, and memory studies. Building on new evidence into Scotland's links with the transatlantic slave trade, the project pushes boundaries around major debates in decolonisation and climate adaptation. It asks: Which collections from the islands tell shared stories of Empire? What is the role of heritage communities for sustainable development? How can island community museums partner with NGOs, policy and local organisations and businesses for climate action? How can health and wellbeing be understood in relation to community heritage, traditional ecological knowledge and island life? What does this new knowledge bring to debates on climate justice, especially as they relate to the role of youth? A range of methods including new archival provenance research into island collections and colonialism, a participatory knowledge-action network addressing present-day challenges, and a transatlantic youth exchange, will bring about inter-generational transmission of cultural and ecological knowledge. Through a carefully considered approach to historical and ecological relations, the research will also explore how public engagement with community heritage can bring about significant health and well-being benefits to people. Seen through the lens of environmental museology, sharing island stories happens inside the space between colonised and coloniser, global South and global North, bringing human-ecological relations to bear on a novel transatlantic island museology.
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