Teacher, Linguist and Cultural Activist, Adrian Gomes, is a ‘Special Person’

Sep 28, 2014 News

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“If I had to do it all again, I would go back into teaching because of the satisfaction it provides. Being able to touch the lives of so many children in a positive way is one of God’s richest blessings. I always say, once a teacher always a teacher.”

By Abena Rockcliffe

It was Marcus Garvey who said, “A people without the knowledge of their history, origin and culture are like a

tree without roots.” Wrapped in that quote is the core belief of respected Teacher, Linguist and Cultural Activist, Adrian Gomes, who has selflessly devoted his time and energy to the preservation of culture amongst his people, the Wapishana.
Gomes has been imparting such precious knowledge for over 25 years. The 51-year-old who, according to many from his home village, Maruranau, has served with distinction, pioneered a programme that stemmed from an idea to save the Wapishana language.

HUMBLE SURROUNDINGS
Adrian Gomes grew up in the “humble surroundings” of a Wapishana village where he was taught the language by his mother—Gena Gomes—and relatives from her side of the family.
His father Leo Gomes, who is a mixture of Portuguese and Wapishana, knew to speak Portuguese as he had Brazilian heritage, “but he never taught us to speak the language, although whenever his dad visited, I would hear them conversing in Portuguese.”
Instead, Gomes’s father, who was a teacher as well, taught him English.
From his accounts, Adrian Gomes had a fulfilling childhood.  He said he particularly enjoyed fishing – with bow and arrow as well as rod and hook – helping his parents to prepare land for planting crops, particularly cassava, and scraping cassava to make farine, cassava bread and parakari. He also enjoyed riding tame animals, among them cows, calves and horses.
“Most of all, I enjoyed being initiated into the  “wiko”… stinging by a special type of  black ants for what I shall call life-crucial survival skills. It is tradition for young male Amerindians of that tribe to be tested by ants. It is believed that the amount of stings one can bare reflects the life challenges they will be able to withstand. A male child who mans up to the challenge is deemed one that will protect his family and “be a man.”

Gomes said that even though he was somewhat of a bookworm, he still found time to play cricket, football and volleyball, carrying those skills as a youth into local competitions at the inter-village level.
He recalled that his first trip to Georgetown was at age 11. He came down for medical attention for about two months after suffering a broken left arm, resulting from a fall off a wild calf that was being tamed.
“I remembered experiencing culture shock because of the hustle and bustle of people, the hum and steady flow of vehicular traffic and the seemingly congested streets of houses of the city as compared to my serene and open home village. I soon made friends, and Georgetown was a place I wanted to visit again” Gomes accounted.
“Not long after that first experience of Georgetown, I came back to live in town, to attend Secondary School—Central High.”
Gomes recalls being one of the “lucky ones” who got to grow up around the person whom he eventually chose as his life partner. His wife, Paula, was no stranger to him, as she is also from Maruranau. A smiling Gomes related that it was only when she “blossomed into a young woman that I became interested in her and she in me. Soon, I proposed to her and she accepted.”
The happy couple tied the knot on December 28, 1989.  The following year, Gomes became

a father. His wife bore him a son, and they named him Jeff. Nine years later their second child Myanna, a girl, was born. He was keen to point out that “this December, by God’s will, we hope to be celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary.”

TEACHING CAREER AND SCHOLARSHIPS
Gomes started his teaching career in 1982 at the Maruranau Primary School where he served for one year as an untrained teacher before moving to become certified at the Cyril Potter College of Education. After receiving his Trained Teacher’s Certificate (Primary), Gomes returned to Maruranau to serve. In 1994 he went to the University of Guyana (UG) and completed a Bachelors Degree in Primary Education.
While attending university, Gomes taught at Cummings Lodge Primary and after completing UG, he again returned to his home village and continued to teach.
In 1999, Gomes started teaching at Aishalton Secondary. The school was commissioned with him as the acting Headmaster along with three other “very young” teachers from Aishalton.
Gomes taught there for two years before a life-changing achievement came his way.
He told me that he was humbled by the news in 2002 that he was awarded a British Chevening Scholarship (the United Kingdom government’s global scholarship) at which time he was confirmed as Head Master. Gomes then proceeded to the University of Leeds, England, where he completed his Masters in Language – Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.
After a year, the scholar returned to Guyana and spent another seven years as Head Teacher of Aishalton Secondary where he also taught English for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate.

Gomes said that he had signed an agreement to serve after his return, but went beyond the call of duty. He said that he was committed to the sacrifice and didn’t want to leave the school without a head. But in 2010 the school got more teachers and “by then I saw some else who was capable of taking over so I decided that the time was right to leave.”

PROMOTING THE WAPISHANA LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
After leaving, Gomes went straight into coordinating the Wapishana Literacy Association in Region Nine. That was in 2010.
Gomes said that he and a colleague Roy O’Connell collaborated to promote the language, which they noticed was under threat. He explained that the language was never a standard orthography, before the intervention of some missionaries in the 1960s.
“Very few people used to try writing the language the way they knew best…in their own way, but it wasn’t until the Missionaries came in the late sixties from the United States that most knew it could have been written.  The missionaries, who were trained linguists, learnt the language and started to develop a small dictionary. They translated Bible stories and songs.
Gomes noted that he learnt to write the Wapishana language in his early thirties.

“When I learnt to write it I saw how beautiful and useful it was and wanted to contribute to further development.”
Now, through his work with the association, over 800 Wapishana across 17 communities can understand, read and write the language.
Gomes noted that the language is under threat because some families believe that for their children to become successful they must speak English alone, because it is the instructional language. He added that many young people who happen to dwell in Georgetown or overseas for awhile, shy away from the language, even when they return.
He asserted that the “real Wapishana culture” is sadly disappearing, “it has just faded into becoming glamour at special events”.
Gomes reflected with sincerity that “Our culture is the bedrock of who we are. If we lose our culture, we in a sense lose who we are…our identity. If it dies it will never be able to be resurrected. I want more Amerindians to be conscious of the importance of being able to speak and write both English and their native tongue”.
He emphasised that he wants to be seen as giving a push-start on knowledge and skills, but stressed that preservation of the language and culture “calls for commitment and sacrifice.”

Gomes said that recently two young ladies—Theresa James and Jacintha Edwards—started putting in some work with the Association. He opined that “time will tell how committed they are, but I also need a young man to do the travels and stuff.”
He said that his children and wife know the language and see the importance in preserving their culture.  Maruranau has a little over 600 residents and 90% know the language.

SIBLING SUPPORT AND KEEPING TRADITION ALIVE
Adrian has one bother Orville and five sisters: Lorene Gomes who is a midwife, Celine Richards, teacher, Maureen Aguilar, Teacher; Francine Gomes, Teacher; and Sherlene Gomes who is a Seamstress.
He said that most of his siblings support his work and have gone through the reading classes
Gomes was also one of the founder members of the now popularly celebrated August Games in the South Rupununi. The South Rupununi Games started in 1996. He said that he and his friend Toney James aka Chief—for whom he has a wealth of respect—sought a way to bring villages together. They soon agreed that annual games would be fun and an excellent way to keep tradition alive.
Each year a different village hosts it and the competition lasts for an entire week.  The games, he said, are both traditional and contemporary
Gomes vividly remembers the first games hosted, “we hadn’t any bikes or tractors then and I can remember ‘Chief’ and his men arriving on horses from Aishalton. It was something to behold”.

GREAT SATISFACTION
Gomes admitted that he initially wanted to be an entrepreneur but eventually found a passion for teaching.
“If I had to do it all again, I would go back into teaching because of the satisfaction it provides. Being able to touch the lives of so many children in a positive way is one of God’s richest blessings. I always say, once a teacher always a teacher.”
Gomes also has a Certificate in Multilingual Education –Bridging between Mother Tongue and School Language; Graduate Certificate in Community-based Literacy as Applied Linguistics from the North Dakota University and a Certificate from the Institute on Field Linguistics and Language Documentation(in Field 2010) from the University of Oregon.
He said that continuous studies give him the feeling like he is constantly improving on what he has to offer society. “It gives me great satisfaction.”

VISION FOR THE FUTURE
So what is his vision for the future?
“Whilst we continue to monitor our own Wapishana Literacy Programme, I would like to see my fellow Amerindian sisters and sisters of other Indigenous groups have their own community-based literacy programmes in their communities. A strong, organized and systematic language development programme can be used as a vehicle in the revitalization and preservation of not only the language but also the culture, because the two are tied.
“Moreover, community leaders assume that knowledge of their history and historical practices, which a language development programme could produce, would unite the communities on sustainable management of their land and resources for the future generations, thus leading to better lives as a people and Guyana as a whole.”
Gomes said that early last year he gave his Wai Wai sisters and brothers a “push start” in their own literacy programme and noted that he is open to assisting other indigenous groups.
“I may not know the various languages, but I am open to share my knowledge and skills of the methods involved in establishing strong community–based literacy programmes.”
Gomes strongly believes and advocates (especially in Amerindian communities, where the children coming to school for the first time use their mother tongue as the dominant language) that beginning reading and writing in the mother tongue is the approach to use.  He says that with a strong base in mother tongue literacy, the children can then learn English as a second language.  He explained that widespread research has shown that children’s reading success in their second language is connected to their first language reading ability.
“The approach still being used in schools is to teach English as if it were the first language of our children whose home language differs from that of the school. It is true that some very good results at the National Grade Six Assessment have been seen at times by way of using this approach, but most times it is only a handful (and probably the gifted) of them who have excelled for top secondary schools in the country.
“I believe if we wish to see many more of our children achieving rather than under-achieving, we would be better off in the long run with mother tongue-assisted instruction, preferably in the early years of our children’s school lives.”
It was the legendary Mahatma Gandhi who said, “A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people. Adrian Gomes is one whose heart is bursting with an extraordinary love and passion for his people, their culture and its preservation.
Our ‘special person’ said in conclusion:”One of the sayings I live by is “just like a bird uses breeze as resistance to its wings in order to fly, so can you use challenges as resistance to propel your way forward.”

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