Garifuna arts and traditions need to be promoted – PM Friday
March is celebrated here in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) as National Heroes’ and Heritage Month, and some of the significant events held during this month are being hosted by The Garifuna Heritage Foundation (TGHF).
On Wednesday, March 11, 2026, TGHF opened its 13th Garifuna Conference opened at the UWI Open Campus, at Murray’s Road, Kingstown.
Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday, who was the keynote speaker, said the government fully supports and welcomes the opportunity to be a part and looks forward to continued partnership.
He emphasised the need to promote Garifuna arts and traditions. This, he said, will be a long-term project of reclaiming our heritage that will help to define us as a people.
“If it is done effectively, it will become a source of national pride and strength for our people, especially for the survivors of the Kalinago and Garifuna living here. It will help to erase the stigma associated for too long with being native or ‘Carib’,” he said.
“When we consider the proud history of the struggles of the Kalinago and Garifuna against colonial aggression and the valiant and heroic efforts to retain their sovereignty and freedom, we cannot help but feel a sense of sadness and loss at the way the story unfolded.
“However, we in SVG have an opportunity that most other island nations in the region do not have”, the Prime Minister said.
He reiterated that our identity as a nation is incomplete without the Garifuna being an explicit part of it.
It is time, he said, that we come together and develop a plan to make this happen.
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