SYMPOSIA IN CONNECTION WITH
THE
SECOND GATHERING OF
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
OF THE CARIBBEAN
AUGUST 29 TO SEPTEMBER 5,
1993
JOSEPH PALACIO
RESIDENT TUTOR
U.W.I., BELIZE
HELD
AT THE INVITATION OF THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF THE REPUBLIC OF TRINIDAD AND
TOBAGO TO COMMEMORATE 1993 THE UNITED NATIONS DECLARED YEAR OF INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES.
INTRODUCTION
First
I express my own heartfelt gratitude to the Ministry of Culture of the Republic
of Trinidad and Tobago for staging this Second Gathering of the Indigenous
Peoples of the Caribbean as aftermath to CARIFESTA V and in commemoration of
1993 the United Nations declared Year of Indigenous Peoples. I am also grateful to the Santa Rosa Carib
community for their hospitality and wish them all success as they celebrate the
234th Annual Santa Rosa de Arima Festival.
THE
GARIFUNA - TRULY INDIGENOUS TO THE CARIBBEAN
Today
I speak to you as a representative of the proud Garifuna nation. That nation numbers about 200,000 and is
found in the Central American countries of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and
Nicaragua as well as in the diaspora throughout North America. The Garifuna are unique in being both
Amerindian and African and being equally proud of these two distinct
roots. We are happy to use the occasion
of this Second Gathering to demonstrate to you some traits of our culture,
which we share with our brothers and sisters throughout this subregion.
The
ancestors of the Garifuna were here before Columbus came. By being able to trace our blood ties to the
Arawaks and Caribs of the Lesser Antilles, the Garifuna are truly indigenous to
the Caribbean. Being indigenous to the
Caribbean means having lived here, mixed with the other races who subsequently
arrived, and contributing to the cultural blending which makes this one of the
richest areas of the world. One cannot
talk about the indigenous in the Caribbean without referring to the beginning a
well as to a continuity.
The
Amerindian peoples that are today found in our countries are the result of such
mixtures either among the Amerindians themselves and/or with other races. It certainly does not mean being 'pure' as
we are all mixed biologically as well as culturally. It does mean that we have taken a conscious decision to portray
the Amerindian part of us, a part that remains pervasive among thousands of
people in the Caribbean but has deliberately been laid to rest over the years
as something insignificant.
The
Garifuna also demonstrate the values of survival, recognition, and reparation
that together form the theme for this Gathering. We survived the wicked genocide that the Europeans inflicted upon
the aboriginal peoples of the New World.
We escaped from the slavery to which both Amerindians and Africans were
brutally subjected. We did so by living
our culture - eating the roots of the cassava plant whose leaf adorns the logo
of this Gathering. Cassava bread or ereba
as we call it in our language is still a main staple in our diet and we brought
some to share with you from Belize.
Our
determination to earn the recognition of the British as the first true
inhabitants of the abundantly fertile island of St. Vincent led to the bitter
Carib Wars and our eventual exile to Central America in 1797. The struggle for recognition as a people
lasted throughout the colonial period in Belize and today remains a problem
during the post-independence era.
REPARATION
It
is, however, on reparation the third item on the theme of this Gathering that I
would like to place some emphasis in this address. The dictionary meaning of reparation is 'the act of making
amends, offering expiation, or giving satisfaction for a wrong or injury,
something done or given as amends or satisfaction.'
Reparation
assumes several things - that the people claiming amends are proactive; that
they work collectively; that they have a plan of action; and that they are
determined to enter into negotiations with the powers that be to acquire their
just objectives. In short, it is a
political process where there is flexing of muscles; engaging in give-and-take;
and being vigilant to secure what is yours.
Through
the National Garifuna Council the Garifuna brothers and sisters who are here
with us for this Second Gathering engaged in a sort of reparation to be able to
come. Firstly, the National Garifuna
Council was determined to be represented here because we did not share
sufficiently with other aboriginal peoples I the First Gathering during
CARIFESTA V last year. To show how
determined we were each member offered to pay most of the airfare from Belize
to Miami return. In other words, we put
our money where our mouth is and it made it easier for those with the resources
- the airlines and the Government - to facilitate us. We had a plan of action; we did our negotiations; and we were
able to reach here.
The
example that I have just given is no doubt repeated constantly in other parts
of the Caribbean as aboriginal peoples reclaim what is rightly theirs - to get
a well here; a health post there; secondary school scholarships; a football
field for the village; and a passport and foreign exchange to attend a
conference overseas; etc. etc. Many of
these cases are, however, episodic. The
effort comes to an end when the specific objective is achieved.
But
reparation means this and much more. It
means being proactive, forming a powerful collectivity, and being strong enough
to engage the powers that be in negotiations to acquire what is rightly
yours. If you will allow me, I will
describe what I have found to be obstacles for reparation. Here I bring to bear my years of experience
in helping with the mobilization of aboriginal peoples at both the practical
and academic levels in Belize as well as the Caribbean subregion.
The
first obstacle is we - the very aboriginal peoples themselves. We lack a positive appreciation of our own
culture. We a re quick to place it in
opposition to western culture. Our
language is not good enough so we do not use it in speaking to our
children. Our religious rituals are not
good enough so we allow them to fall by the wayside in favor of
christianity. We allow our oral
history, folklore, herbal cures to wither away and die. Most of us are truly trying to downplay our
roots to be able to pass for what we really are not. The biggest challenge facing those of us who want to revive the
culture is the inability to generate a strong collective action among our own
people. The massive inertia among the
region's aboriginal peoples for the protection and conservation of their own
culture is totally scandalous!
So
who else can we turn to for direction?
It is certainly not the NGOs. I
do not know of an NGO working in our countries whose main objective is to
generate our comprehensive community development on a sustained basis. On the other hand, I know of several NGOs
who will use the cause of aboriginal peoples to further their own program. By and large the NGOs are the latter day
Columbuses seeking to discover new Indians for their own selfish aims.
What
about the umbrella organizations that the aboriginal peoples themselves have
formed? There are examples in Dominica,
Guyana, and Belize. The genuine
leaders of these organizations are martyrs.
They preside over groups with lots of in-fighting, an inability to
penetrate large parts of the aboriginal community, no funding, and a tendency
to splinter into even smaller factions.
The regional umbrella organization the Caribbean Organization of
Indigenous Peoples (COIP), which the National Garifuna Council among others
helped to form in St. Vincent in 1987, has fallen into the same pattern. Apart from a handful of individuals nobody
knows what is happening to the COIP at this time.
If
the people themselves are not organized (and do not seem organizable) what is
the Government doing about it? As you
would expect the Government of the day has become adept on playing politics
among the aboriginal peoples. Leaders
are played one against the other; the same thing is done for communities and
even districts. Quite simply, to the
politicians, aboriginal peoples are first and foremost voters who can be bought
for a cheap price.
All
our Governments have not extended to the aboriginal peoples the right to full
self-expression as peoples in their own right.
When we exert such demands the Government is quick to say that they will
not tolerate apartheid. They do not stop
to analyze what are the limits of their obligations to people who have had
primordial rights to these islands and the surrounding mainland centuries
before the Europeans came. In their own
narrow minded intransigence our Governments have fallen behind internationally
accepted conventions in dealing with aboriginal peoples. This has happened like pouring water on
duck's back - with no second thought whatsoever.
None
of our Governments has subscribed to the ILO Convention 169 which gives
aboriginals the right to demand to be treated as peoples with access to their
lands, language, and their own form of livelihood. None of our Governments has paid any attention to the forthcoming
Bill of rights for Aboriginal Peoples that the United Nations has been drafting
for the last few years with the help of aboriginal peoples from all over the
world. Our respective representatives
to the OAS do not inform us that the OAS is working on a similar document.
Our
Governments have not agreed to a culturally pluralist framework with policies
allowing, for example, the teaching of aboriginal languages in schools. Mexico, Costa Rica, and even Guatemala - as
repressive as that country has been - have adopted such conventions. Among Central American countries Panama has
probably gone the furthest in honoring the autonomy of its aboriginal
peoples. The English speaking Caribbean
countries - if they could come to terms with their own chauvinism - could learn
a great deal from Panama on aboriginal issues.
Who
then are our friends in the struggle toward reparation? We have friends and sympathizers in the
United Nations system and OAS. We have
support from the World Council of Indigenous peoples (WCIP) of which we are
members. We have established lasting
bonds with international NGOs like Cultural Survival based in Cambridge,
Massachusetts and IAF in Washington DC.
We have strong fellowship with aboriginal brothers and sisters
throughout Canada, United States of America, Latin America, Australia, New
Guinea, and New Zealand. We can receive
a great deal of international support through the powerful environmental
movement, which has recognized the wisdom of peoples who have lived in harmony
with their ecology for centuries.
Closer
to home the UWI through its School of Continuing Studies has been a veritable
mother to us. The strongest endorsement
we have received through the CARICOM came from the West Indian Commission
Report. Laureen Pierre and myself had
the honor of collaborating to do background work for the West Indian
Commission. It was probably the first
time that aboriginal persons were involved in studying their own people for a
major regional report. Most of all we
have strong and powerful support from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago
Ministry of Culture, especially Efebo Wilkenson, Eintou Springer, Robin Cross,
and several others. There are other
CARICOM countries with larger proportions of aboriginal populations but only
Trinidad and Tobago has had the vision and empathy to convoke such a
Gathering. I am told that the reason
why Hurricane Brett did not touch Trinidad and Tobago is that God was born
here. The spirits of our ancestors will
make sure that Trinidad and Tobago get even more blessings for having staged
this Second Gathering.
At the
end of the day only we can take charge of the momentum that this Gathering has
generated. My objective in this address
has been to outline what I regard as major impediments that obstruct our tasks
of reparation. In doing so I have left
no holes barred and may have even taken our dirty linen out for public
view. I have done this because I am
convinced that we are at a moment of major crisis. Besides, as First Nations the extent to which we handle this
crisis will provide inspiration to others in the region who look to us for
leadership in their own struggles to reclaim their peoplehood.
Thank
you very much.