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| RIGHTS-CARIBBEAN: SEEKING COMPENSATION FOR YEARS OF EXPLOITATION |
Story Filed: Saturday, December 04, 1999 8:04 PM EST
PORT OF SPAIN, (Dec. 3) IPS - By the time he leaves for Cuba in mid-December,
Carib leader Ricardo Hernandez Bharat is hoping to have the full endorsement of
his colleagues of his call for some form of compensation from the Trinidad and
Tobago government for years of exploitation of his ancestors.
Bharat is going to Cuba on Dec. 13 to attend a meeting of indigenous people
from the Americas, dubbed People of the First Nations of the World.
The Cuba meeting is being organized by the Canadian-based Elleggua Foundation
and will be held in the eastern town of Baracoa.
But while Bharat will participate in various cultural activities, he is also
arming himself with a document that the 500 Caribs in Arima in Eastern Trinidad
have been putting together for possible discussion with the present Trinidad and
Tobago government.
"Our National Anthem speaks of every creed and race finding an equal place.
That is true to some extent, (because) we of the Santa Rosa Carib community
still need to find our equal place," Bharat said.
The Caribs also say they want to meet with Prime Minister Basdeo Panday "very
soon" to discuss a number of issues and the visit late last month of a
delegation from the Manitoba First Nation Investment and Cultural Mission of
Canada has added to that request for discussions with the government.
"We are working on the document in order to make an official submission to
the government," said the Carib leader.
Bharat said among the various requests the Caribs will make will be a call
for a Day of National Recognition so as to create awareness among the population
of the important role the early settlers played in the development of the
country.
In addition, the Caribs want the government to provide them with a parcel of
land "as compensation "for land taken away from our people who were fooled,
robbed by the early rulers of this country."
"Returning a small portion of ancestral land of 200-300 Amerindians would be
of no electoral significance to any government, but it would tell the world that
we here in this place we like to call 'rainbow country' and other show-off
titles, are prepared to restore a measure of dignity to the people who crossed
the Bering straits 14,000 years ago," wrote newspaper columnist Tony Fraser.
And it is not only in Trinidad and Tobago that indigenous people's cries for
land have been falling on deaf ears, observers say.
In Guyana, the government there is being accused of trying to deprive several
Amerindian tribes of several hundred hectares of land which it plans to sell or
lease or sell to a Texas-based company to establish a station for the launch of
satellites.
The local Caribs say if the authorities provide them with the land, it will
be used to construct an "authentic Carib Village" and grow cassava on a
commercial scale so as to provide additional financial assistance to the
descendants of the early inhabitants.
"Community-owned land is important to any indigenous community," Bharat said,
pointing out that over the years there has been a reduction in the government
subvention and generally a total disregard by the country "for our indigenous
culture."
Every August since 1785, the Caribs celebrate the Santa Rosa Festival in
honor of St. Rose of Lima, a patron saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
Patricia Elie, a Carib descendent who is doing research on the "Indigenous
South American Amerindians at the University of London," said because of the
decisions of the early Spanish rulers, "Caribs have become squatters on their
own land."
But Elie, who has conducted extensive research on Amerindians in Trinidad and
Tobago, said unlike today's squatters -- who have been given "some form of
right" by the government to own lands -- in the case of the Caribs, "they have
no lands."
She said the problem can be traced as far back as 1849, when authorities
sought to bring the existing Amerindian groups into the developing society.
According to Elie, the authorities made everything Spanish as they sought to
assimilate the Amerindians into the new society, depriving them of their lands.
"From that time they have been suffering," she said in a welcome address to
the visiting Canadian delegation last month.
But despite their problems, Elie said the present Santa Rosa Carib Community
is the only "organized community that enjoys an identity in Trinidad and
Tobago," as the "modern phase" of their development takes root.
Bharat said the Santa Rosa Carib Community is planning a gathering of First
Nations People in August 2000.
"It is very important that there be interaction with First Nations people if
we are to make meaningful progress in the way forward," he added.
During the visit of the Manitoba First Nation Investment and Cultural Mission
of Canada, Grand chief Rod Bushie of the Ojibway people proposed that the
headquarters for the aboriginal peoples of the world should be located in
Trinidad and Tobago.
The delegation held discussions with the Caribs and Bushie said the country
was chosen because of its central location in the Americas.
And in some quarters these developments are being viewed in a positive light.
"We are ending the millennium in which these people were discovered by
Europeans, destroyed and decimated by Europeans, and now they are coming out of
that, recapturing themselves, their history, their culture and becoming
self-sufficient again and moving forward and they want to start right here,"
said Robert Sabga, Trinidad and Tobago's High Commissioner to Canada, who
accompanied the delegation.
1999, Inter Press Service.