CELEBRATING AMERINDIAN HERITAGE MONTH

Sep 10, 2023 Consumer Concerns, Features / Columnists, News, Waterfalls Magazine

CONSUMER CONCERNS

By PAT DIAL

Waterfalls Magazine – Since 1995, Amerindian Heritage Month has been commemorated but this year, the celebrations promise to be larger and with more content. The theme of this year’s commemoration is “Sustaining our Cultural Heritage and Identity while contributing to One Guyana”. The Month commenced with a cultural event at the National Park which attracted several thousands of people. On show were representatives of each tribe of Amerindians, their languages, food, dance and other facets of their life. Pauline Sukhai, Minister of Amerindian Affairs and an Amerindian herself remarked “Our Indigenous People have for centuries had a deep connection with nature. This connection is rooted in our beliefs, traditional knowledge and practices. You have for centuries been custodians of our Environment and its prime protectors.” Gail Teixeira, as acting Prime Minister, in her offering, remarked “Indigenous people of Guyana are an example to the world on how to manage resources sustainably; this too is your cultural heritage. You have taught us how to survive off the land and how to live in harmony with nature. You have helped to keep our ecosystems intact. This too, is your heritage”.

There are a number of other events planned for the rest of the month and these include culture nights, an exhibition at Castellani House and heritage sports meets. The most important event of the National Toshaos Conference which opened towards the end of August, dovetailed into Amerindian Heritage Month.

The Conference lasted for five days and took place at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre and was attended by 200 Indigenous leaders or Toshaos. The forum afforded an opportunity for the Toshaos to meet and interact with Ministers of Government and Government officials and to make decisions regarding the development of their communities and the livelihoods of their people. Some immediate interventions were made while plans were discussed for other longer-term interventions which included upgrading infrastructure in interior communities, improving health care with the building of new hospitals and health centres and expanding services such as telemedicine. Investments would be made in Agriculture and Tourism and training would be done in these fields to include Indigenous youths.

Two notable immediate interventions were made by Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh and Culture, Youth and Sports Minister, Charles Ramson. Minister Singh gave the Toshaos 1215 tablets so that they could distribute these among their communities so that they could access the Guyana Online Academy of Learning- GOAL- programmes while Minister Ramson handed over 100 cheques of $1M each for the upgrades of the community grounds of 100 Amerindian villages.

President Dr. Irfaan Ali, in his address on the closing day of the Conference, made a number of important undertakings to the Toshaos and these include: The Chairman of the National Toshaos Council (NTC, Mr. Derrick John will meet the Minister of Finance during the Budget Consultation process; the distribution of 30,000 household solar units; an additional $16B would be invested this year to upgrade infrastructure in hinterland communities; an aggressive programme to develop education in hinterland communities including improvements in teachers’ living quarters and building of new schools; the slow delivery of Wi-Fi to hinterland communities will be addressed; and that every young person with the basic qualifications to enter the nursing programme will be given scholarships to train as nurses and also to train in agriculture and tourism.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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Amerindian Heritage Month, CONCERNS, Consumer, Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai

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