Historically significant or offensive?

New Orleans is perhaps the most visible and talked-about example, as in the past months activists have actually been successful in getting such monuments removed from prominent places around their city .

Similarly, in Bristol, United Kingdom, activists have managed to focus attention on monuments to people like Edward Colston, whose family profited immensely from the trade in Africans. Across Bristol, there are streets, schools, and a church ceremony named for Colston, making the current movement to remove symbols dedicated to him extremely complicated and contentious .

At home, debate around Christopher Columbus continues to be controversial. The holiday that was named for him, Discovery Day, was changed to Emancipation Day in 1985. However, there are growing calls for statues of Columbus to be completely taken down because of his reputation for decimating our Indigenous Peoples, among other ills .

Naturally, opinion is divided, with supporters pointing out that these negative symbols are also a part of our history and should not be removed .

It is strange how we hold on to notions of tradition and age-old practices even when the evidence clearly shows that we would benefit more by celebrating our own national symbols .

I thought of all these issues as I attended a particularly dismal event which was, ironically, held to celebrate community activists and national icons. I was intensely disappointed by the playing of foreign music as we waited for the event to begin, and as the background to the awards .

The very colonial military protocols surprised me, as well as the fact that only some people were treated to refreshments. But worse of all, although the event happened on the day we celebrated Eid-ul- Fitr, no mention of this was made by the master of ceremonies, the opening prayer was Christian in orientation, and two of the four entertainers performed Christian items .

The problems thus went beyond poor event planning. It was clear to me that the organisers were not even aware of the insensitivity of their choices. For me, this is worse than deliberately ignoring the conventions of an independent nation .

These blunders send a message that despite more than 50 years of independence, we have not internalised what it means to be TT. We have not claimed our space; perhaps we do not yet know what it is .

I remember clearly when Catholic worship changed. The typical Latin dirges were replaced by strident singing, African drums and other percussive instruments. Progressive leaders of faith recognised that times were changing and to keep people coming to the church, the style of worship had to become more relevant to the period .

The change in approach to worship was powerful because it showed how ideologies of freedom and self-determination could straddle both the secular and the religious, and that such concepts were more encompassing than individual pockets of belief .

I think this is the key to understanding what we need to do to adopt a clear position on national monuments and an appropriate national protocol for public events .

So, historically significant or offensive relics of enslavement, indentureship and colonialism? We have not yet arrived at a point where we can determine from our collective consciousness how we should treat with symbols and traditions that offend all of us, because we still do not see ourselves as a collective. And if the event I attended is any indicator, it seems that as a nation we are still some distance away from being able to decide .

D a r a Healy is a performance artist and founder of the NGO, the Indigenous Creative Arts Network – ICAN