July 11, 2025 • 19 mins
Go behind the scenes of Whispers of the Past with host Fi de Wit, as she shares the story behind the series. From childhood summers on Statia to archaeological digs and the legacy of women left out of the archives, this episode traces the emotional and creative process behind season one.
Discover the inspiration, the unexpected turns, and the team that brought these whispers to life. Learn how grief, memory, and community shaped a podcast rooted in care and resistance, and how the journey continues. This is more than a recap. It’s a love letter to ancestral resilience, and a call to keep listening.
—
Produced by Simpler Media
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Unidentified (Podcast Host) (00:00):
Welcome to Wisps of the Past. I'm your host,
(00:02):
Fitovit, and in this episode, I
invite you behind the scenes of season
one. This series began as
a whisper in my own heart, a calling
to trace stories hidden in plain sight across
interstacias, a place I hold dear in
my heart due to my own ties with this beautiful
island. My desire was to tell history
(00:26):
not only through documents and dates, but through the
lives of women. Why women, you may ask?
Because growing up and still, if
we look at history, it's almost
always men that are being highlighted, and
women are just simply left outside of the
narrative. But it was the women who
(00:47):
held families together, who led in
silence, grieved in private,
and carved their wisdom into the land.
Throughout this season, we explore the
legacy of a major focal society
on this island, where strength
is quiet and resilience often
(01:08):
worn like a second skin. We
examined folklore and theory
and followed the devastating echoes left by
enslavement, migration, and
silence. And in
doing so, we made space.
Space for what was too often left out
(01:28):
of the narrative. The stories of
enslaved women.
Women whose voices were erased. Erased
from the archives, overwritten by Eurocentric
records that measured value in land,
names and power, but not in
care, kinship, or survival.
(01:51):
This podcast has been a way to bring those voices to
light and to shift the lens,
to say, hey, we are here. We
mattered, and we still do. So in this special
episode, I'm going to share with you how this
season came to be the inspiration behind
it. Some unexpected turns,
(02:11):
and where the whispers might carry us next.
This podcast didn't just begin in the
studio. It began with a feeling, a
longing, a whisper.
The reason why I began Whispers of the Past
(02:32):
is threefold. It's rooted in
memory, mentorship, and a
quiet fire that turned into action.
So the first reason is the island,
Stacia. I grew up between two
worlds. The greyness of the Netherlands and
the sun soaked soul of Stacia.
(02:53):
Every summer and some winters, we came back
here. And every time we returned back to the Netherlands,
my parents would say, she got the Stacia blues
because I did. Because something would stay
behind among the volcanic black
sand, the crystal blue ocean, and the
familiar laughter of people who raised me with kindness and
(03:14):
stories. For me, the island softened
the edges of the world. And it was
this place that has shaped my becoming.
The second reason is my godmom,
Mrs. Suta Cow.
How did you feel when I said I wanted to do this
and that you were a big inspiration for me?
>> Ms. Sutekau (03:36):
I was very proud of you for that I
also had my reservations,
because finding out the history of
the women is very difficult.
This is the same thing as finding out
the history of a country.
History is written by the conqueror
(03:57):
and the powerful. It is not
written by the conqueror and the
less powerful. And, uh, in history,
women have always been
considered less powerful.
They aren't, but they
had to wield their power in a
(04:18):
gentle way. At
the same time, they were
not recognized for the
powers they really were.
>> Unidentified (Podcast Host) (04:32):
My godmom took me to archaeological digs when I
was just a kid, and she told me to
look down through the soil of memory,
because when you walk, you'll see
stories everywhere. And it was through
her that I first learned that history is
not something in the past or something very far away.
(04:53):
It lives in our hands, in the soil we walk
on, in the women who were never written into
books but lived full lives. Anyway,
it was her that inspired me to look at
history through the lens of women.
And then, thirdly, a book.
(05:16):
It's a book called if Women Rose,
rooted by Sharon Blackie.
Though the book itself is really woven from
Celtic myths and European soil,
it offered a truth that crossed oceans.
One of the things that she writes about in her book
is change begins small.
(05:38):
And we can either sit in our grief and our frustration
with the silences of history, or we
can rise and speak. So this podcast
is my rising, a way of honoring the
women history erased and letting their strength
echo forward through sound, through
memory, and through you.
(06:03):
Since beginning this journey, something unexpected happened.
My anger towards the patriarchy has
quietened, and the
resentment that I held has softened.
Because in telling these stories, I stepped into
action. And action is its own
kind of healing. It's
(06:25):
my hope that this offering becomes part of a much
older ripple of change, one that began with women
way before me,
the ancestors who had no microphones, but left
legacy in their footsteps.
And that in your own way, in your own voice,
you too will carry it forward.
(06:53):
So nothing is ever really done in isolation.
And this podcast, this living
archive of memory, was. Would have never
come to life without the people and the support that
surrounded it.
So, first of all, a dream needs roots.
(07:13):
I had an idea, a vision,
a feeling in my chest that I wouldn't let go
for about two and a half years. In my mind, I had already
created this podcast. But it wasn't
until I started conversations with
culture, Fons Karibi, Schebit
and Fons for Kultur Participati,
(07:33):
who gave this project wings.
They saw possibility in the idea. They
believe that storytelling,
especially storytelling, rooted in Caribbean soil
deserve to be funded and deserve to be
heard. We live
in a world where dreams need money, and that's
(07:54):
unfortunately, the truth. And I'm
endlessly grateful that these funds
made space for voices often pushed to the
margins, women's voices,
and in particularly in our case,
voices from synthesias.
Because of that support, the financial support that this
(08:15):
project was granted, I was
able to build a team.
And let me tell you, behind every whisper you've heard,
there's been a chorus of hands, heart, and hard
work.
So part of this amazing team, we have
Eugene, our, uh, sound designer. He's in the studio
(08:38):
with me right now.
We've had Ankeli,
who helped me also with recordings for voiceovers.
Sarah, our web designer, who took a
vision and made it visible.
Our, uh, podcast producers, Ivo and Ali,
(08:59):
who helped me shape the foundation of the podcast and the
distribution. And, um,
the graphic designer, Niquet, who translated
each episode and the podcast logo into a visual
image. And last
but not least, we have Vanessa and Chandra, two
sisters from this very island who handled our
(09:19):
social media with care, care and pride.
Now, I had this dream
of only hiring women, not because
I'm against men, actually, far from it. I've
been shaped by strong, tender men too.
But I wanted to tip the skill evenly
(09:40):
to empower more women through this process behind the mic
as well as in front of it.
And then there was another stumbling block
that I came across
because life happens Covid
deadlines, full time job,
(10:02):
moments where I thought I wouldn't finish. But somehow,
somehow we made it. Because that's the magic of
community. You find your people, you keep
going. Even when it's messy and even when it's
hard.
M so how did we do it technically? Well, it was a
dance between remote interviews
(10:24):
because most of the people that you hear on this podcast
are not necessarily located here.
Zoom calls voice notes
recording in quiet corners of the island.
And then for the visuals, chasing good light. And it wasn't
always perfect, but it was real.
And maybe that's what makes it beautiful.
(10:47):
So if you're listening and you've got an
idea, a story, a vision,
my advice, find your people, start where you are,
and don't be afraid to whisper into this world
some of the highlights and stumbling
(11:09):
blocks. So if I had to
pick a favorite moment from this season,
honestly, it's kind of hard because every episode we poured
in so much effort.
But I have kind of two highlights.
For me, episode two on the Amerindians has a
special place in my heart.
(11:31):
It really reminded me that Stacia's story did not
begin with the colonizers or even the
traitors. It began with a deep, sacred
relationship with the land, with
the elements. Uh, even the indigenous name,
Aloui Island. And
this was so unexpected. I didn't realize that
(11:52):
there was a matrifocal society here.
That was such an unexpected fact to
discover. And then
episode four, the Curse of the Blue Bead.
That one really hit me in the gut. I did not
expect it to be so emotional. And
writing those voiceovers broke something in me.
I cried a lot during that time. I felt the
(12:15):
injustice, the way women
were treated, how that pain was woven into
silence. And it just made me so angry,
deeply upset and frustrated.
Not just for them, but also how often those patterns
are still present in our life today.
(12:35):
Something I definitely did not anticipate was the emotional
toll that this kind of storytelling takes.
I'm a highly sensitive person,
um, and this wasn't just a creative
project. It required me
often to process kind of this grief that I felt that
wasn't always mine, almost like a collective grief.
(12:58):
And I sometimes had to start
scheduling emotional space, not just the editing
time. Often when we
have an episode going live, like, I had already listened to it
five times. But, yeah,
when I started this project, the podcast producer,
EFO would often say, like, ooh, that's an
aggressive timeline. And
(13:20):
it's true. You just. Things come up that you don't
account for. And this is definitely one of my lessons that
I learned.
So sometimes, you know, life gets in the way. Deadline waivers.
And, yeah, he was right.
Creating something this layer, this alive, takes more than
discipline. It also really takes hard space.
(13:48):
One of the brightest lights in all of this is, you know,
spending time with the elders. I give chair yoga
on a weekly basis, so I already have a
bond. But sitting down with some of the elders and recording
their stories, their laughter, their wisdom,
that was really something magical. And I'll never
forget one of the quotes by Mrs. Rivers,
(14:10):
what I like about Stacia.
You are free.
>> Ms. Sutekau (14:18):
I, uh, am free.
>> Unidentified (Podcast Host) (14:21):
I didn't expect her to say this. We were talking,
and she says that she's free.
Um, and that's why she loves Stacia, because of the
freedom here. It was just so simple. But in that
moment, I just. I felt like, yes,
we're going to use that to bring this
series to an end. Because freedom
(14:42):
isn't always loud.
It's a quiet truth spoken by someone who has lived enough life
to know what it really, really means.
So you might wonder the Big question. Will
there be a season two?
And the answer is the whispers
(15:04):
haven't gone quiet. It's still
humming in the background, soft
and persistent. There
are more stories waiting, more
voices still unheard, more roots
to uncover beneath the soil of memory.
And for now, we are taking a short creative pause
(15:25):
to breathe, to reflect,
to listen again before speaking.
So we're exploring new themes and looking into funding
and what's possible.
It's really important for me to move with intention,
and we want to build this next chapter with reference.
(15:49):
So, yes, the ambition is alive. And when it's
time, we'll return with more echoes,
more truth, and more
of a fierce, quiet courage that began this
journey. So please stay
close. Watch this space,
and when the next whisper rises, you'll be the
(16:10):
first to know.
Before we close, I want to pause and
say thank you. First of all, to you, the
listeners who turned in from near and far,
who made space in your heart
and your headphones for these stories to live
(16:32):
again. Your presence
gave this work breath.
And to the remarkable team behind Whispers of the Past,
thank you for carrying me and this vision
from production to design, from sound to story.
You elevated each episode into something I could
(16:53):
only dream of.
Thank you to my personal cheerleaders, my friends
who encouraged me from the beginning.
And then we have the voices, the ones you
heard, and the ones who remain
unnamed. Thank you
to Mrs. Tsutakao, to Mr. Richardson,
(17:14):
Dr. Anna Hanslin, Dr.
Elaine, Dr. Stelton,
Dr. Morsink, and Dr.
Sahidi. Your scholarship,
your expertise grounded the soul
of this series.
And then to the local wisdom keepers, Governor
(17:34):
Francis, Mr. Burkle,
Mrs. Rivers, and Mrs. Bennett.
Your stories made the past feel like a living room we
could sit in. Every word you shared
became a thread woven into collective remembering.
This podcast began as a whisper,
a quiet yearning to reclaim the untold,
(17:56):
to make space for women's voices in archives
where silences had settled.
It was never just about history. It was
about healing and about reclaiming the right to say,
we're here. We mattered and we
carried on. If there's anything I hope
you take from this, let it be this.
(18:17):
Stories are not just remnants of the past. They
are reminders of what we can still
transform. Until
next time. May the whispers lead you
where truth calls, where
healing awaits, and where the future is
shaped by those who dare to remember.
>> Speaker C (18:40):
Welcome to my island.
My historical island.
Ask anyone.
Welcome to my island.
Welcome to my island.
Welcome to Wisps of the Past. I'm your host,
(00:02):
Fitovit, and in this episode, I
invite you behind the scenes of season
one. This series began as
a whisper in my own heart, a calling
to trace stories hidden in plain sight across
interstacias, a place I hold dear in
my heart due to my own ties with this beautiful
island. My desire was to tell history
(00:26):
not only through documents and dates, but through the
lives of women. Why women, you may ask?
Because growing up and still, if
we look at history, it's almost
always men that are being highlighted, and
women are just simply left outside of the
narrative. But it was the women who
(00:47):
held families together, who led in
silence, grieved in private,
and carved their wisdom into the land.
Throughout this season, we explore the
legacy of a major focal society
on this island, where strength
is quiet and resilience often
(01:08):
worn like a second skin. We
examined folklore and theory
and followed the devastating echoes left by
enslavement, migration, and
silence. And in
doing so, we made space.
Space for what was too often left out
(01:28):
of the narrative. The stories of
enslaved women.
Women whose voices were erased. Erased
from the archives, overwritten by Eurocentric
records that measured value in land,
names and power, but not in
care, kinship, or survival.
(01:51):
This podcast has been a way to bring those voices to
light and to shift the lens,
to say, hey, we are here. We
mattered, and we still do. So in this special
episode, I'm going to share with you how this
season came to be the inspiration behind
it. Some unexpected turns,
(02:11):
and where the whispers might carry us next.
This podcast didn't just begin in the
studio. It began with a feeling, a
longing, a whisper.
The reason why I began Whispers of the Past
(02:32):
is threefold. It's rooted in
memory, mentorship, and a
quiet fire that turned into action.
So the first reason is the island,
Stacia. I grew up between two
worlds. The greyness of the Netherlands and
the sun soaked soul of Stacia.
(02:53):
Every summer and some winters, we came back
here. And every time we returned back to the Netherlands,
my parents would say, she got the Stacia blues
because I did. Because something would stay
behind among the volcanic black
sand, the crystal blue ocean, and the
familiar laughter of people who raised me with kindness and
(03:14):
stories. For me, the island softened
the edges of the world. And it was
this place that has shaped my becoming.
The second reason is my godmom,
Mrs. Suta Cow.
How did you feel when I said I wanted to do this
and that you were a big inspiration for me?
>> Ms. Sutekau (03:36):
I was very proud of you for that I
also had my reservations,
because finding out the history of
the women is very difficult.
This is the same thing as finding out
the history of a country.
History is written by the conqueror
(03:57):
and the powerful. It is not
written by the conqueror and the
less powerful. And, uh, in history,
women have always been
considered less powerful.
They aren't, but they
had to wield their power in a
(04:18):
gentle way. At
the same time, they were
not recognized for the
powers they really were.
>> Unidentified (Podcast Host) (04:32):
My godmom took me to archaeological digs when I
was just a kid, and she told me to
look down through the soil of memory,
because when you walk, you'll see
stories everywhere. And it was through
her that I first learned that history is
not something in the past or something very far away.
(04:53):
It lives in our hands, in the soil we walk
on, in the women who were never written into
books but lived full lives. Anyway,
it was her that inspired me to look at
history through the lens of women.
And then, thirdly, a book.
(05:16):
It's a book called if Women Rose,
rooted by Sharon Blackie.
Though the book itself is really woven from
Celtic myths and European soil,
it offered a truth that crossed oceans.
One of the things that she writes about in her book
is change begins small.
(05:38):
And we can either sit in our grief and our frustration
with the silences of history, or we
can rise and speak. So this podcast
is my rising, a way of honoring the
women history erased and letting their strength
echo forward through sound, through
memory, and through you.
(06:03):
Since beginning this journey, something unexpected happened.
My anger towards the patriarchy has
quietened, and the
resentment that I held has softened.
Because in telling these stories, I stepped into
action. And action is its own
kind of healing. It's
(06:25):
my hope that this offering becomes part of a much
older ripple of change, one that began with women
way before me,
the ancestors who had no microphones, but left
legacy in their footsteps.
And that in your own way, in your own voice,
you too will carry it forward.
(06:53):
So nothing is ever really done in isolation.
And this podcast, this living
archive of memory, was. Would have never
come to life without the people and the support that
surrounded it.
So, first of all, a dream needs roots.
(07:13):
I had an idea, a vision,
a feeling in my chest that I wouldn't let go
for about two and a half years. In my mind, I had already
created this podcast. But it wasn't
until I started conversations with
culture, Fons Karibi, Schebit
and Fons for Kultur Participati,
(07:33):
who gave this project wings.
They saw possibility in the idea. They
believe that storytelling,
especially storytelling, rooted in Caribbean soil
deserve to be funded and deserve to be
heard. We live
in a world where dreams need money, and that's
(07:54):
unfortunately, the truth. And I'm
endlessly grateful that these funds
made space for voices often pushed to the
margins, women's voices,
and in particularly in our case,
voices from synthesias.
Because of that support, the financial support that this
(08:15):
project was granted, I was
able to build a team.
And let me tell you, behind every whisper you've heard,
there's been a chorus of hands, heart, and hard
work.
So part of this amazing team, we have
Eugene, our, uh, sound designer. He's in the studio
(08:38):
with me right now.
We've had Ankeli,
who helped me also with recordings for voiceovers.
Sarah, our web designer, who took a
vision and made it visible.
Our, uh, podcast producers, Ivo and Ali,
(08:59):
who helped me shape the foundation of the podcast and the
distribution. And, um,
the graphic designer, Niquet, who translated
each episode and the podcast logo into a visual
image. And last
but not least, we have Vanessa and Chandra, two
sisters from this very island who handled our
(09:19):
social media with care, care and pride.
Now, I had this dream
of only hiring women, not because
I'm against men, actually, far from it. I've
been shaped by strong, tender men too.
But I wanted to tip the skill evenly
(09:40):
to empower more women through this process behind the mic
as well as in front of it.
And then there was another stumbling block
that I came across
because life happens Covid
deadlines, full time job,
(10:02):
moments where I thought I wouldn't finish. But somehow,
somehow we made it. Because that's the magic of
community. You find your people, you keep
going. Even when it's messy and even when it's
hard.
M so how did we do it technically? Well, it was a
dance between remote interviews
(10:24):
because most of the people that you hear on this podcast
are not necessarily located here.
Zoom calls voice notes
recording in quiet corners of the island.
And then for the visuals, chasing good light. And it wasn't
always perfect, but it was real.
And maybe that's what makes it beautiful.
(10:47):
So if you're listening and you've got an
idea, a story, a vision,
my advice, find your people, start where you are,
and don't be afraid to whisper into this world
some of the highlights and stumbling
(11:09):
blocks. So if I had to
pick a favorite moment from this season,
honestly, it's kind of hard because every episode we poured
in so much effort.
But I have kind of two highlights.
For me, episode two on the Amerindians has a
special place in my heart.
(11:31):
It really reminded me that Stacia's story did not
begin with the colonizers or even the
traitors. It began with a deep, sacred
relationship with the land, with
the elements. Uh, even the indigenous name,
Aloui Island. And
this was so unexpected. I didn't realize that
(11:52):
there was a matrifocal society here.
That was such an unexpected fact to
discover. And then
episode four, the Curse of the Blue Bead.
That one really hit me in the gut. I did not
expect it to be so emotional. And
writing those voiceovers broke something in me.
I cried a lot during that time. I felt the
(12:15):
injustice, the way women
were treated, how that pain was woven into
silence. And it just made me so angry,
deeply upset and frustrated.
Not just for them, but also how often those patterns
are still present in our life today.
(12:35):
Something I definitely did not anticipate was the emotional
toll that this kind of storytelling takes.
I'm a highly sensitive person,
um, and this wasn't just a creative
project. It required me
often to process kind of this grief that I felt that
wasn't always mine, almost like a collective grief.
(12:58):
And I sometimes had to start
scheduling emotional space, not just the editing
time. Often when we
have an episode going live, like, I had already listened to it
five times. But, yeah,
when I started this project, the podcast producer,
EFO would often say, like, ooh, that's an
aggressive timeline. And
(13:20):
it's true. You just. Things come up that you don't
account for. And this is definitely one of my lessons that
I learned.
So sometimes, you know, life gets in the way. Deadline waivers.
And, yeah, he was right.
Creating something this layer, this alive, takes more than
discipline. It also really takes hard space.
(13:48):
One of the brightest lights in all of this is, you know,
spending time with the elders. I give chair yoga
on a weekly basis, so I already have a
bond. But sitting down with some of the elders and recording
their stories, their laughter, their wisdom,
that was really something magical. And I'll never
forget one of the quotes by Mrs. Rivers,
(14:10):
what I like about Stacia.
You are free.
>> Ms. Sutekau (14:18):
I, uh, am free.
>> Unidentified (Podcast Host) (14:21):
I didn't expect her to say this. We were talking,
and she says that she's free.
Um, and that's why she loves Stacia, because of the
freedom here. It was just so simple. But in that
moment, I just. I felt like, yes,
we're going to use that to bring this
series to an end. Because freedom
(14:42):
isn't always loud.
It's a quiet truth spoken by someone who has lived enough life
to know what it really, really means.
So you might wonder the Big question. Will
there be a season two?
And the answer is the whispers
(15:04):
haven't gone quiet. It's still
humming in the background, soft
and persistent. There
are more stories waiting, more
voices still unheard, more roots
to uncover beneath the soil of memory.
And for now, we are taking a short creative pause
(15:25):
to breathe, to reflect,
to listen again before speaking.
So we're exploring new themes and looking into funding
and what's possible.
It's really important for me to move with intention,
and we want to build this next chapter with reference.
(15:49):
So, yes, the ambition is alive. And when it's
time, we'll return with more echoes,
more truth, and more
of a fierce, quiet courage that began this
journey. So please stay
close. Watch this space,
and when the next whisper rises, you'll be the
(16:10):
first to know.
Before we close, I want to pause and
say thank you. First of all, to you, the
listeners who turned in from near and far,
who made space in your heart
and your headphones for these stories to live
(16:32):
again. Your presence
gave this work breath.
And to the remarkable team behind Whispers of the Past,
thank you for carrying me and this vision
from production to design, from sound to story.
You elevated each episode into something I could
(16:53):
only dream of.
Thank you to my personal cheerleaders, my friends
who encouraged me from the beginning.
And then we have the voices, the ones you
heard, and the ones who remain
unnamed. Thank you
to Mrs. Tsutakao, to Mr. Richardson,
(17:14):
Dr. Anna Hanslin, Dr.
Elaine, Dr. Stelton,
Dr. Morsink, and Dr.
Sahidi. Your scholarship,
your expertise grounded the soul
of this series.
And then to the local wisdom keepers, Governor
(17:34):
Francis, Mr. Burkle,
Mrs. Rivers, and Mrs. Bennett.
Your stories made the past feel like a living room we
could sit in. Every word you shared
became a thread woven into collective remembering.
This podcast began as a whisper,
a quiet yearning to reclaim the untold,
(17:56):
to make space for women's voices in archives
where silences had settled.
It was never just about history. It was
about healing and about reclaiming the right to say,
we're here. We mattered and we
carried on. If there's anything I hope
you take from this, let it be this.
(18:17):
Stories are not just remnants of the past. They
are reminders of what we can still
transform. Until
next time. May the whispers lead you
where truth calls, where
healing awaits, and where the future is
shaped by those who dare to remember.
>> Speaker C (18:40):
Welcome to my island.
My historical island.
Ask anyone.
Welcome to my island.
Welcome to my island.
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