‘Promote pre-colonial areas as tourism sites’

Diaspora/Heritage tourism, with specific focus on promoting pre-colonial areas as heritage sites, was a recommendation coming out of the fifth International Garifuna Conference, on March 12 and 13 at the Peace Memorial Hall.

The Garifuna Heritage Foundation hosted a successful two-day conference, under the theme: ‘The Island of Balliceaux: Sacred Lands or Economic Opportunity’.

There were representatives from regional Garifuna settlements from Suriname, Belize, Dominica and Guyana, as well as many history teachers, historians, ambassadors and historian enthusiasts, who came to garner details of Vincentian history.

Keynote speaker, lecturer in Cultural Studies at UWI Cave Hill, Dr Yanique Hume, made the heritage tourism suggestion during the opening night of the conference, which she said would help to strengthen pre-colonial heritage, while creating economic stimulus and improving the push to have these sites preserved.

“Tourism, while seeming as a blessing for some and a curse for others, can become the central ground to which the quest of histories can enter into public discourse, through re-imagining and branding specific locals as unique heritage sites….And the rationale, the idea of bolstering cultural confidence; strengthening the indigenous component; establishing further ties across those indigenous communities; enhancing the destination branding; making the product we sell as tourism distinctive and exponential – beyond sand, sea, sex, sun and rum. Breaking away from commodity tourism and relying on being able to think about what it means to bring forth a new way of protecting sacred sites,” Dr Hume said.

She explained that what is usually promoted in the Caribbean as a historic site is the colonial aspects, such as plantation houses and forts and that most of the history written at the time was an attempt at erasing the history of the local population. She suggested that reparatory money be reinvested in an interactive museum, a monument of Chief Joseph Chatoyer (the national hero) and a heritage trail, which she says would

help to preserve the heritage, but sustain a livelihood.

Another panellist, who had conducted research into the history of Balliceaux and the Garifuna people, gave an in-depth presentation and revealed new exciting details for further historical research.

Dr Niall Finneran, reader in Historical Archaeology at the University of Winchester, UK, revealed that a former student of his discovered in his research into the French black prisoners of Portchester Castle, that one of those prisoners was described as a ‘free, mixed race soldier, who was in the command of the Garifuna.’ He explained that other survivors of the Portchester Castle had either fought in the French Revolution, migrated to Sicily, Italy, Ukraine or gone back to the Caribbean. Finneran explained that this new detail creates a big context to work in further historical discoveries about the indigenous group.

Prime Minister of SVG, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, in his remarks, said the Government has ratified the United Nations Declaration on the Rights on Indigenous People. In 2001, UNESCO proclaimed the Garifuna Heritage and Culture as one of the Intangible Masterpieces of the Heritage of Mankind.

Kathy Martin, a former chairperson of the SVG National Trust, spoke on archaeological discoveries on Balliceaux and how skeletal remains date as far back as AD 1230.

It was explained that in 1795 the Garifuna had surrendered and 4,776 Garifuna were exiled to Balliceaux in 1797. The then owner of the island, Campbell, was “graciously” receiving rent from the British Government during the six months of their exile on the island, in which 2,500 Garifunas died. The survivors were then taken to Roatan island, off the coast of Honduras in Central America, and they now number over 300,000 persons. St Vincent was considered the centre of Garifuna resistance and Balliceaux today, is considered sacred to the Garifuna descendants. Balliceaux and Battowia have been up for sale on various websites and in 2017, there was a potential buyer.

Dr Hume emphasized that a collaborative effort between state and indigenous groups is needed to secure Balliceaux as a heritage site. She explained that there needs to be a clear understanding of what needs to be done and that half of the work is finished, since there is already a formal recognition from UNESCO about the importance of the Garifuna heritage. She said the Garifuna diaspora can use this as a departure point and build a case to deem Balliceaux a natural site of sacred value.(CB)