With the feast of Santa Rosa coming up, Arima parish priest Fr Christian Pereira organised a meeting between parishioners and the Carib community to ensure that all would go well with this year's celebrations. Among those present were Arima Mayor Aldwin Edwards, President of the Carib Community Bharath Hernandez and Carib Queen Valentina Medina.

Gary Tagallie, a community development worker, facilitated the session, which was held on Thursday, August 1. In his introduction, Parishioner Martin Franklin said he found it providential that the meeting was taking place on Emancipation Day, a day of rededication to building a Trinidad & Tobago in which all children, men and women will be free to be the best persons they can be.

He reminded all of the history of the parish and said the present challenge was to reach out to the entire community - Caribs, long standing Ariminians and new residents without allowing any group to feel left out.

Tagallie began by stressing that emancipation is not just an event but a process. He recalled the words of Bob Marley, "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind," and said this was the first step in reconciling differences.

"If we want to build community, we have our model in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit", he said and added, "That's all that we need. Do not expect solutions today. Expect the beginning of a dialogue and the beginning of a process."

In his opening comments, Mr. Hernandez thanked Fr Pereira for organising the session. He said there was a problem of lack of communication between the Church and Carib Communities. He thought it was essential to know the history of Arima so that traditions would not be disregarded. "All the Community is asking for is a little respect," he said, "Once there is respect for the community we'll be happy." He said they were not hurt or bitter; they simply want to be consulted and respected.

One participant suggested that the Carib community could organise a forum to educate the children by inviting schools to come and see and learn about them.

Another noted, "After the session today, we'll all be more sensitive to people's needs. The writing of history has been unkind to the indigenous community. It is difficult to get information to substantiate the facts. We need to read about the Caribs and we need to understand Carib life. We need to move away from the surface issues and get to the root of Carib Ancestry. There is a thirst for this type of information."

In summing up, Tagallie noted the following needs which had been mentioned in the session:
- respect for the Carib Community;
- more consultations;
- respect for traditions;
- building relationships within the parish community;
- education about indigenous life in Trinidad
- retaining individuality on the one hand and preserving culture on the other.