Maximiliaan Scriwanek (Historian / Archivist) is Director of the National Archives of Curacao, Vice-President of the Caribbean Branch of the International Council on Archives (CARBICA) and co-chair of the Caribbean Heritage Emergency Network (CHEN). He chairs the National Committee of Blue Shield Curacao.

Scriwanek, born in Curacao, studied History at the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht in the Netherlands (1997) specialized in the relationship between Curacao-Venezuela-Netherlands at the turn of the 20th century. He studied Documentary Heritage Management at the Rijksarchiefschool, The Hague, Netherlands (1994). Since 1996 he worked as a Policy advisor at the National Archives in Curacao. In 2014 he was promoted to Director of the National Archives. He drafted the Archives Legislation for Curacao (2008), initiated the new repository (2011) and the projects to transfer new public records: “Archives school Curacao” (2017-2019) and the “Repraisal project” (2017-2019). Since the National Archives of Curacao is now custodian of records up till 2000, we strive to put an increased focus on utilization of these newly acquired records. Promotion of these new public records among historians and investigators is our next phase in our Management Plan. My presence in this General Assembly of ADHILAC fits in that picture. We sincerely hope more regional historians will find their way to our reading rooms and explore the richness of all these new records, that we have made available in recent years. Part of our collection is nominated for UNESCO Memory of the World (2021). Our inventories are online available (2015) and we hope to set up an E-depot in the upcoming years, for online availability of entire fonds.

Scriwanek, as Vice President of CARBICA, was involved in the establishment of the Caribbean Heritage Emergency Network (CHEN, 2018), set up after the devastating hurricane season 2017, with two Category 5 and one Category 4 hurricane devastating the Caribbean region, leaving a trail of damaged documentary heritage in its wake. The network has a Dbase of experts willing to participate in the entire Disaster Management Cycle and is now working to establish an “cultural ambulance” for the Caribbean region in Curacao.

Since May 2022 he is Vice President of ADHILAC