The
Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Ministry recently delivered a cheque of million to an Amerindian Village Council in an attempt to preserve the Warrou culture and revive the language. The decision to distribute money instead of investing in a long-term, sustainable cultural preservation initiative triggered scepticism regarding the depth of the Government’s commitment to preserving and promoting Amerindian culture.
Amerindian culture and way of life has suffered erosion due not only to the necessity of adapting to the evolving cultural landscape initiated by their successive encounters with the different peoples who came to this land, but also, to the policies which sought over time either to assimilate them under colonial and dictatorial regimes (People’s National Congress (PNC)-led) defined predominantly by Christian values.
From the Catholic missionaries who converted the “savages” and “children of the forest” they encountered upon arriving in Guyana, to the forced migration of thousands of Amerindians who fled the harsh policies of the colonial empires, to Burnham’s national agenda to forge a Guyanese culture at the detriment of the multicultural particularities which characterise the population, Amerindians saw their culture and way of life unravel so quickly that there was hardly any time to transmit valuable knowledge to younger generations.
The stigmatisation of Amerindians, traces of which endure today, should have ended with the Independence of Guyana. Instead it continued under a PNC regime which sidelined not only Amerindian cultures, but East Indians as well, through national policies which disregarded the particularities of our cultural diversities. Perhaps the most significant undertaking of the Burnham regime was the debut of Amerindian Land Titling, an accomplishment resulting from the efforts of Steven Campbell and The United Force (TUF).
Amerindians had to wait until Guyana obtained its first free and fair elections in 1992, before tangible investments commenced to valorise the role of indigenous peoples in Guyana’s development and subsequently the importance of preserving and promoting indigenous cultures and way of life.
Under the successive mandates of the former Administration, efforts geared toward Amerindian cultural preservation and sensitisation of the wider Guyanese population on the importance of this national heritage and patrimony, resulted in several notable initiatives which have had a lasting impact on the restoration of Amerindian culture. Among these were as the establishment of Amerindian Heritage Month in September, the publication of seven dictionaries covering seven of the nine existing Amerindian languages in Guyana, annual archaeological fieldtrips for school children organised in partnership with the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology and the Boisie State University, research on social anthropology and the Berbice mounds dating back to 6000 BC, and the implantation of the Arawak Language Revival Programme.
In 2014, a draft was being prepared to implement an Amerindian song festival. However, the Granger Administration upon assuming office proceeded to scrap the initiative. In its 23 years of governance, while the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government could have invested more meaningfully in Amerindian cultural preservation, particularly in language, it has succeeded at diminishing the stigma with which Amerindians have had to live for decades, that is being looked upon as the “Other” within our own national boundaries and the lands on which their ancestors hunted and dwelled for centuries.
This revalorisation of Amerindian culture however, is far from complete but instead must remain a continuous process adapted to the current context of socioeconomic development in which villages now find themselves. Often, the Government prioritises economic development over cultural preservation, without realising that Amerindians are perhaps the most vulnerable segment of our population, prone to rapid cultural erosion.
It is for this reason that the coalition Government falls under fire for investing next to nothing in cultural preservation, and for displaying a genuine lack of concern for sustainable investments in initiatives guaranteeing the cultural security of Amerindians.
In one year, the Allicock administration has done nothing but squandered resources which have and will produce little impact and results in the domain of indigenous cultures. This adds to the list of concerns which have risen since the PNC-led coalition Government was installed, regarding the indifference for indigenous rights and the principle of FPIC in the national decision-making process.
However, as an African proverb rightfully reminds us, “A people without culture is like a zebra without stripes”. The Government must be reminded that indigenous heritage is wealth belonging not just to Amerindians, but to all Guyanese, and subsequently a matter of national interest and investment.
