Market Day to celebrate Jamaica’s rich culture and history

Market Day, a four-part animated series created by Zoie O’Sullivan and designed by Roael Cooke aims to highlight Jamaica’s history, culture, people, and language.

Sullivan who is curatorial assistant and Roael Cooke, designer and preparator of the National Museum Jamaica, created this series to commemorate Jamaica’s Emancipendence celebrations. Market Day is aimed at a general audience, including children, young adults, and families. It will be engaging, and informative, making history entertaining.

All the characters in the series were voiced by staff at National Museum Jamaica, adding to the authenticity of the spoken language in the series. The series aims to educate and entertain viewers about the four main groups that contributed to Jamaica’s history: the Taino, the Spanish, the Africans, and the British.

The series is presented by a lively and charismatic higgler named NormaJean (pronounced nawmajeen a nd is a play on NMJ, the abbreviation of National Museum Jamaica), who shares historical insights as she interacts with customers at her bustling market stall and other environments. Each episode will last between 2-5 minutes and highlights the lasting legacies of these groups and how they shaped Jamaican culture, language, traditions, and identity.

The first episode is set to be released on August 1, with the last episode airing August 22. Each episode will be available for free on the National Museum Jamaica’s YouTube channel.

With light-hearted yet informative storytelling, NormaJean engages viewers through humour and customer interactions. The series is primarily in Jamaican Patois accompanied by Standard English subtitles, ensuring authenticity while being accessible to a wider audience.