First Peoples will persevere

The history of the Amerindians, Carib and Arawak, was part of most of our childhood, but it may be a fading part of our heritage.

Carib Queen of the Santa Rosa First Peoples Jennifer Cassar was adamant that the Amerindian race was not dying, but there was need for more of the young people to embrace their heritage.

Speaking yesterday at the launch of the Santa Rosa Festival at Paul Mitchell Street, Arima, said the Amerindian community was healthy, but they need to make their youth understand the significance of their race.

Cassar took over as Carib Queen in 2011 after Carib Queen Valentina Medina passed away. Cassar was a public servant before she took on the role as matriarch of the community, and was involved in heritage activities and diplomatic events in the community.

Asked how she felt about Government granting the First Peoples of TT a public holiday on October 13, Cassar said after lobbying for years, they were grateful because “nobody wanted to give up their holiday.” “We have had incremental progress and had discussions with previous administrations.

We settled for a one off holiday this year because after lobbying for years we realised that nobody wanted to give up their holiday,” Cassar said.

The First Peoples had been lobbying for a formal public holiday for many years and were only granted a “one-off ” holiday this year.

Cassar was the first to say the First Peoples were not a dying race.

“I think the problem is that most people do not identify with their ethnicity and they term themselves ‘Spanish’, whatever that is and refuse to acknowledge that they came from Karina or Lokono (Amerindian).

“People have to be educated and sensitised, hence the one off holiday will be doing that. We would like a public holiday every year but we will settle for the one off because we not only have to sensitise and educate people, we have to do capacity building.

The Carib Queen said there are about 900 Carib descendants in Arima, while there are thousands more scattered throughout the country, mainly in the North Eastern part of Trinidad.