Amerindian pride is a community responsibility

Sep 07, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

I wish to bring to focus our national theme for this year’s Amerindian heritage month: ‘Preserving our traditional Integrity, Celebrating our Cultural Identity.’
There is an increasing perception that the Amerindian is slowly losing pride in his own culture. There is a semblance of truth in this, but those of us who take genuine pride identifying as the First People of this Land are in the great majority.
Society is so structured that minorities will experience some form of alienation living in towns and villages that are more developed than their home villages. That is only natural. The resultant format of split loyalty, however, is seen in early assimilation of subjects into a more dominant culture, thus giving rise to a loss of pride of their origin, loss of interest in where they truly belong; taking pride in a culture which is not theirs. That would be a crude way of explaining the cultural phenomenon, but that is, although unfortunate, only natural.
Missionaries in the colonial past were perhaps more concerned with the spiritual aspects of the tribes rather than helping with practical aspects like agriculture, machinery, woodcraft, balata craft, cookery and so forth. Without the wherewithal to eke out a better way of life, too, could have been a grave concern for us the Amerindians and that served to hurt our pride, living in a state of abject poverty with poor levels of education. And whose pride could not go unhurt? For certain, tribal language was the least encouraged and least preserved, except for some tribes these days. Amerindians then found themselves between accepting a foreign language and being ridiculed, for the use of their language. The impression was their language was inferior, and that caused the cultural dilemma.
However, the use of our Amerindian languages must be encouraged and preserved at all costs. To make my final point, Editor, a comment is critical to give clarity to the subject at hand. Amerindians, as far as tradition goes, are accountable for each other. Properly understood, community implies more than just living together in a geographical location. It means that there be some real sharing of life together, namely that we work together, that we celebrate our rites together, that we celebrate some of our everyday joys, fears, and feasts together; that we are responsible to each other and open to each other as regards mutual correction and challenge. So, all these things together, and more, in essence, mean in some form or the other we are mutually accountable to each other. I mean, if anyone began to do things that went against village by-laws, for example, the community would go against him, or her, and challenge that person to straighten himself out.
The community is the people and they determine what is tradition in terms of what is culturally accepted as the norm, in terms of ceremonial outfit, type of beverages, land use, etc. It goes without saying that cultural preferences, therefore, must, for all intents and purposes continue to be determined by the collective, the people at large; not by an individual, or a group of individuals. In the end we will all be the happier of whom we are and celebrate our Amerindian identity with pride.
Happy heritage to all my Amerindian sisters and brothers. God bless us the Amerindians of Guyana. God bless Guyana.

Yours faithfully,
Joseph Atkinson

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