First Peoples to preserve culture

And for its leaders, Chief Ricardo Bharath Hernandez and Carib Queen Jennifer Cassar, the one-off holiday granted to the community on October 13 signals a renaissance for a group almost forgotten.

Its significance is so meaningful to the group, that preparations for the holiday have already begun, with an almost concluded calendar of events. The calendar includes educational/learning opportunities, DNA testing, the unveiling of a totem pole and the sod turning for the first building at the First Peoples Heritage Village.

Bharath Hernandez said to Newsday, at a visit to the community’s office at Paul Mitchell Street, Arima: “What we are doing is going out to the communities, meeting with the people and getting them involved.” He said there were currently 900 First Peoples in TT with 200 of those being members of his community.

The group is also expected to host a ceremony at the Red House, where skeletal remains and artefacts belonging to First Peoples were found, and host a procession up Frederick Street and then to a day of activities at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain.

He said nine countries are expected to attend this year’s celebrations, including the US and Canada. Seven regional partners would attend this year’s celebrations as well.

But the global connections with other First Peoples have always existed, he said. “In terms of the global partnership, that has been taking place for quite a few years.

For quite a number of years, we have been interacting with the region because there is an organisation called the Caribbean Organisation of Indigenous Peoples and its members include Guyana, Suriname, Dominica, St Vincent, Puerto Rico and TT.” TT is currently the chair of the organisation. “During this week of activities we will take the opportunity to discuss what is happening in the region as each country will have an opportunity to report on the development of the first peoples in their respective country...” Bharath Hernandez said what appears to be a renewed interest in First Peoples culture began since the 1970s.

“From the 1970s there seems to be a reawakening of indigenous people at that time...it happened here in Trinidad and at the time it was happening we were not aware of what was happening globally. I like to term that an inspiration from above...” “I think one of the reasons for that besides the divine intervention...the dominance of First Peoples and other ethnicities, the colonial power was that seemed to be so heavy on other countries seems to be lifting away. And that could come through education and the modern technology that we have.” He said as people became more educated, they became more empowered and what was happening today was a result of that empowerment and education.

However, he believed that the new interest in First Peoples culture today could little impact TT .

He said the society was steeped in the direction of the economy and money and doing “all things for this mighty dollar and advancing through that.” This, he said, was a vast difference to the way of life of First Peoples.

He said even among the indigenous communities, the way of life was changing because of what people expected.

“What people expect for advancement, that power is also reaching into indigenous communities and they want to follow the same pattern. Most people want cellphones and other things and that is making its way into indigenous communities...” Bharath Hernandez said it was important to preserve the traditional ways since it provided a certain peace of mind and impacted positively on health.

While Bharath Hernandez and the other older indigenous peoples’ fight to preserve their culture, getting youth involved posed some difficulty. “It is a challenge but we cannot give up.

We have to continue to engage the youth through education.

Through educating them on the different aspects of indigenous life and the benefits to humanity...” He said there were many youths in the community but not many were involved in the organisation. The organisation needed to do more to reach out to them, he said.

This, Bharath Hernandez said, was the reason for requesting the national holiday. “The whole reason for the holiday was so the whole country could stop and reflect on the reason for the holiday.

We don’t expect everyone will be involved in the activities some people are happy for the holiday not to go to work... but that some would stop and say we have a holiday. Why? Because of the First Peoples, their contributions of the past, their present situation and their vision for the future. We do have a vision for the future that would help the country as a whole.” The holiday provides an opportunity for all those interested in wanting to know more and learn more to attend one of the events, he said.