Garifuna host symposium

20.NOV.09

“Research and Practice of the Garifuna Heritage and Culture as a Reflection of Caribbean Indigenous Experience” was the theme of the Garifuna Heritage Foundation Regional symposium, convened on Monday, November 9.{{more}}

Topics discussed at the ceremony were “Research, the Garifuna and the Caribbean Context,” “Performance as Methodology: Exploring the Garifuna Experience,” and “Forging Connections, Re-envisioning Futures: Planning around the 2010 Garifuna Heritage Foundation Conference, a panel at the 2010 Caribbean Studies Association, and Regional and International Affiliations and Partnerships.”

The objective of the symposium was to heighten local awareness of the Garifuna Heritage and to encourage local regional and international support for Garifuna Heritage.

Speakers at the symposium mentioned the need to research, document and reclaim local history that has been lost. Minister of Culture René Baptiste said that she is determined to plant firmly in the soil of this Hairouna the burning desire for Vincentians to realize that if they do not understand the past, the future will indeed be difficult.

Leah Stewart, Lecturer and PhD Candidate, York University, Toronto, narrated the journey of Christopher Columbus from Spain, 1492. She presented a different view point that one would encounter when reading history texts for primary and secondary schools. Stewart added that the pepper sauce that is widely enjoyed by Caribbean people and others was invented by the Calinagos. (API)