Amerindian Heritage Month: Mom of 3 passionate about Indigenous roots, brings out culture in music

By Alva Solomon

Shunette Thompson is very passionate about her Indigenous culture. The singer belts out new tunes annually, and the popularity of her song ‘Kanaima’ has been evolving each year.
In fact, it was around 2018 that, while singing at a party at Karasabai in South Pakaraima, her husband shot a video of her performing the song on stage, and released it on social media platform YouTube. The feedback surprised Thompson. The video has since grown wildly popular within Indigenous communities, gaining over 11,000 views; and as Heritage Month activities kick-off this month, it is already gaining traction at cultural events.

The lyrics ‘Kanaima kanaima kanaima’ catch the ear; and Thompson, a mother of three, who lives with her family at St. Ignatius village outside Lethem, is already gearing up to belt out the lyrics of the song and many others in her repertoire.

Since 2012
Although the song’s popularity has been growing post-pandemic, ‘Kanaima’ was recorded more than a decade ago, Thompson told Guyana Times recently. “It is an old song I wrote since 2012, and I would sing it regularly,” the smiling songstress noted. The song is “about blaming the kanaima for everything”, Thompson said.
In Indigenous culture, the kanaima is considered a spiritual being which unleashes demonic power to weaken, or even kill, a human being or animals. Thompson said her song is “about the reality of the kanaima, because it is dangerous and scary. I think it is persons who transform into beings.”

She said that sometimes, when someone is sick or has a prolonged fever, or is paralyzed mysteriously from some form of sickness, “kanamia gets the blame.” She said, “When people smoke, those addicts, they have this passion to do terrible things; so kanaima is like that, but deadly.” Thompson said she sang the song in English and Wapichan.
Thompson, a Wapichan who was born and raised in the village of Tiperu in the South Pakaraimas, has been singing since her early teenage years. She said she attended primary school at Tiperu, and later attended Annai Secondary School. While at the latter school, she picked up the microphone at a cultural event and started singing publicly.
“I started at Heritage Time one September, at the village of Tiger Pond; and since then, everyone encouraged me to sing,” she related. She said she would write and sing “little songs about “life and how I grew up, and about my experience.” Thompson said she would sing while on the farm with her husband and children, and also within the household.

Moved to St Ignatius
After meeting her husband Erwin, she said, they decided to combine their skills, since he is an expert in information communication technology, and he also records her music. “When I talked to him, I said, ‘Why can’t we do our own little music production?’ and he encouraged me to sing while he would record the songs,” she explained.
Thompson has performed at multiple venues across the Rupununi, and last week she returned from Brazil after a vacation. She said that while she was there, she also performed some of her songs.
She has performed in Georgetown multiple times, at Heritage Celebrations during the month of September.
With a smile, she noted that the crowds in the villages in the Rupununi are livelier than those in the city. “In the villages, the response if livelier; the crowds get more involved in the music,” she said.
She said she also performed her songs in Panama a few years ago, and she noted that it was one of her favourite moments as a singer and mother.
In addition to the ‘Kanaima’ song, Thompson said, there are several songs for which she received positive feedback. They include “the Crab song”, another named “Farine and Tasso”, and just last week, she released another song on social media, named “Lazy me like de donkey”.
She said she has a packed agenda this September, as she has been booked to perform at many cultural events to mark Amerindian Heritage Month.