Hill Cultures: Celebrating Diversity

Chalky Mount.

There was an echo of magic in it.

So, off I went with Nyla, my trusted photographer, in search of the ‘Potters of Chalky Mount’, right after a visit to Earthworks, one of the main pottery-making establishments in Barbados. We had discovered there, that the founder of the company, Goldie Spieler, had worked with some of the older potters back in the 60s and 70s. She had arrived from Canada to Barbados in the 60s as a young woman. An artist herself, she had engaged the local pottery makers in order to learn the craft, and had also tried to pass on the art to younger people through teaching and community workshops.

The potters of Chalky Mount have a tradition of over two to three hundred years of pottery making. The pottery, unlike our decorative uses, were used as daily implements and the potters had developed their own way of processing and refining the clay so that the vessels could be used for consuming water and food.

We visited a potter’s home that overlooked what, he said, used to be the plantation owner’s land. He pointed out the expanse from his backyard. The hill on which he resided provided him with a beautiful view of the plains below and thus held historical significance to the people.

The production in this little yard was not expansive like Earthworks’s.

This was a man with no assistance other than his own hands and a small kiln that he used to bake his pottery. The output was small. He didn’t have enough income to upgrade but in this little village, the pottery-making tradition continues because, the clay found here, is ideal for the craft.

From the mountains of the Bible to the Prophet Muhammed’s revelations in a cave on a mountain, mountains have featured in religious iconography for various historical and spiritual reasons. They are sacred in many cultures around the world and are home to many thriving communities.

In 2002, the United Nations marked The International Year of the Mountain in recognition of the fact that “The concept of traditional heritage, culture and spirituality is intrinsically linked with peoples’ livelihoods in the mountains, where it is often traditional lifestyles that determine the way people make a living and subsist…Mountains are also the sources of springs and rivers and have been revered as the home of deities throughout history…A large proportion of the world’s minority populations live in mountain areas.” December 11 was designated International Mountain Day and while the 2016 theme is ‘Mountain Cultures: Celebrating Diversity and Strengthening Identity’ the UN has invited nations to select a theme that may be more appropriate to them.

While Trinidad cannot boast of mountains in the way that the Incas or Chinese can, we can appropriate the UN’s focus on mountain cultures to the hill cultures that survive in Trinidad. One can easily note the similarities in features.

Here our hills are alive with the energy of its local inhabitants.

While the Northern Range acts as armour against storms and hurricanes, in various pockets, one can also easily find small communities thriving on agriculture, fishing, or jewellery-making. In each of these pursuits, nature provides the necessary material.

The Northern Range also creates a dividing line between rural and urban communities — Westmoorings versus the fisher-folk of Maracas for instance, as a geographer friend noted. One can easily note the difference in lifestyles created by the geography and settlement of the areas. The Range also boasts of gorgeous waterfalls, and rivers like Aripo and Caura that are not only critical to the island’s water supply but also have significant ritual value to the various religious groups that co-exist in this island.

While many of us remain oblivious and disengaged from issues like conservation of the environment and the impact of climate change, International Mountain Day reminds us that these issues are real.

While the hills provide pathways to scenic locations like beaches and hiking trails, they are not merely spaces of leisure. They are home to groups of people who live close to the land and, for whom the space is historically and culturally valuable.

It is therefore worth our time to pay attention to the hill cultures that surround us if we are to move towards more progressive ways of thinking a b o u t we at h e r and economics.