Inter-American Week of Indigenous Peoples

Sunday, August 9, was the International Day of the world Indigenous Peoples. This year’s theme was “Honouring Indigenous Midwives: Safeguarding Life and Well-being”. In a message marking the occasion, Dr Carla Barnett CARICOM’s Secretary General, noted that the theme recognises the important role Indigenous midwives play as custodians of ancestral knowledge, caregivers and guardians of cultural traditions passed down through generations. I immediately thought of Sarah Baptiste of Sandy Bay who performed overwhelmingly her work as a midwife, walking sometimes late at nights to perform her duties. Was Sarah Baptiste ever honoured? If so, what honour? This brings me to a point I have been labouring under for quite a long time; that is introducing a system of National Honours before embarking on a journey of confusion to find another National Hero. During the week International Awareness Week, the Organisation of American States held its IX Inter- American Week of Indigenous People 2026.

One of its activities was a Virtual Heritage Expo held on August 13, 2026, its OAS IX Inter-American Week of Indigenous People. Highlights were two video presentations from Dominica and St. Vincent. Following Dominica’s video, Kalinago Chief Annette Sandford, made a presentation. Akley Olton did the Vincentian video. I was invited to make brief remarks following his video. I tried to expand the context provided by the video. In the case of SVG we refer to the Kalinago and Garifuna people as Indigenous people. Garifuna people resulted from cohabitation between the Kalinago people and Africans. Who were these Africans and from where did they come? Ivan Van Sertima’s ‘thesis’ introduced in a book he edited entitled African Presence in Early America, St. Vincent is mentioned in context of two Mandinga voyages from Africa across the Atlantic between 1307 and 1312. No one returned from those voyages, but there is no evidence to suggest that they ever arrived in St. Vincent. If by chance they came, who did they meet and what happened?

Two other explanations exist. The British Calendar of States referred to a shipwreck off Bequia where Africans were rescued by some Kalinago people, taken to Bequia and then on to the mainland. The majority of Africans who came to St. Vincent were really escaped slaves from Barbados and neighbouring islands. A French official pointed out how easy it was to get from Barbados to St. Vincent; “it is not necessary to do anything other than drift on the currents and by steering a canoe ever so little it is therefore possible to come very easily from Barbados”. They knew then that they would have been given shelter by the Kalinagos.

How did the Indigenous people live? They were fearless on the sea. They were top class boat builders, their ‘moses’ boat being in demand from other islands. They were never enslaved, but used their boats on the rough Windward Coast to transport sugar from the shore to larger boats waiting outside. They were well known for making baskets which fitted into one another, constructed in a manner as to be water tight. In the 1884 Forestry Exhibition in Scotland, representing St. Vincent, they received awards for their display including one for a model of a dug-out canoe. At the Jamaican Exhibition in 1891 St. Vincent was represented by six Kalinago and six Garifuna persons. They received a lot of attention. Their Court was considered the most interesting with the Governor and Lady Blake being frequent visitors. Lady Blake presented them with “six very fine cutlasses with nickle-plated blades and handles of horn”. The Administrator indicated that Mr. PC Cork, the Commissioner of the Windward Islands at the Jamaica Exhibition reported “that the St. Vincent Courts were universally acknowledged to be the most interesting tropical courts in the Exhibition, and that a Diploma of Honour, the highest award (only given in cases of especial excellence), had been awarded to the general collection and arrangements of the exhibits.” (The St. Vincent Handbook).

The Indigenous people also made a significant contribution to the culinary art with their contribution of cassava bread, madungo bakes, farine, duccana and Fungi. Little is mentioned about the Tri Tri which is a delicacy in SVG. It should be noted however that today we catch the Tri-Tri the same way the indigenous people did in the 18th century.

It was in December, 1994 that the UN General Assembly recognised August 9 as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples to protect Indigenous rights and raise global awareness.

• Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian