Director of the Museum and Historical Society of Barbados, Alissandra Cummins is internationally recognized in matters concerning heritage, museum development and art. From 2004-2010, she served as President of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) – the first woman and the first person from the Caribbean to do so – and represented Barbados as a member of the Executive Board of UNESCO from 2011-2013, which she chaired from 2012-13. She teaches Museum and Heritage Studies at the University of the West Indies and currently is part of the editorial board of the International Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship, as well as the advisory board of the International Network of the Slave Route Project.

She was instrumental in the creation of the Museums Association of the Caribbean (MAC), becoming President Founder, in 1989. She was also active first as a Board Member and then as President of the International Association for Caribbean Archaeology (IACA). She also served as UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee Chair for the Promotion of Return of Cultural Property to Countries of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation (ICPRCP), from 2003 to 2005. In 2007, she was appointed President of UNESCO’s International Advisory Board Memory of the World Programme. 

Acting as Special Envoy of Cultural Heritage by the Government of Barbados, she has been responsible for advising technical issues and development policies, and represents the nation at regional and international levels. 

She currently serves as the Chairperson of the Board of the Barbados National Art Gallery, and similarly chairs the Barbados National Commission for UNESCO.

Alissandra Cummins is a Fellow of the Museums Association (UK), An Honorary member of ICOM and a member of the Commonwealth Association of Museums’ Cowrie Circle. She was awarded Barbados’s Gold Crown of Merit in 2006 in recognition of her services to the development of heritage and museums.

Colonised Caribbean people are not used to seeing themselves represented in positions of authority and empathy in museums, let alone women. Typically these people are used to seeing themselves in the background of the historical construct of racism. Thus, the performance of identity is an increasingly constant practice at the Barbados Museum. 

"An African Song or Chant from Barbados". the panellist shows a song sung by slaves in Barbados that became a tool for change in the anti-slavery campaign.

We must learn to transcribe, negotiate and reinterpret what we hear from people who are in prison, under pressure and enslaved.