Why the Need for International Indigenous Ties?

Maximilian C. Forte, 1999, 2001, 2006

Suzan Campo, seated third from the left, was one of two Trinidad Caribs to take part in an congress of indigenous representatives from across the Americas, held in Ottawa in 1991 and organized by the Assembly of First Nations. Suzan's photo (above) was signed by AFN Chief Ovide Mercredi. It was at this congress that many Caribbean indigenous representatives met each other for the first time, some surprised to learn of each other's existence.

Over the last twenty years, the Santa Rosa Carib Community though small in size has been able to amass an impressive array of international indigenous connections, with the total number of indigenous visitors from abroad dwarfing the number of organized Caribs in Arima. (Of course, most people of Carib descent in Arima are not part of the organized group, which, of course, puts this statement in its proper perspective.)

Thus far, the organized Carib Community has established contacts and/or relationships with Amerindians from Belize, Puerto Rico, Dominica, St. Vincent, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Canada, and the United States.  They are also members of the Caribbean Organization of Indigenous People, and through that vehicle, the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (now defunct). They have also had contact with the Canadian Assembly of First Nations, the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, and the Guyanese Organization of Indigenous Peoples. They have participated in hemispheric indigenous conferences; they received a scholarship from the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations; they have sent representatives to Canada, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, St. Kitts, Guyana, Suriname, and as far away as India; they have ties with Caribs living in Florida who in turn have become aligned with Seminole Indian organizations; and, they have received aboriginal people from as far away as Australia. Lastly, they have sponsored their very own Caribbean Amerindian gatherings and have been formally recognized and applauded by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago for their support and commitment to the struggles of indigenous people the world over. All of this has been achieved achieved in a period stretching from only the late 1980s to 2000.

The question is why? Why has all of this been necessary or desirable from the standpoint of the Santa Rosa Carib Community of Arima? I believe the answer goes to the heart of the process of the recovery of indigeneity in Trinidad.

From interviews I conducted with my key informants and specialists in the Carib Community, I have been to derive several key statements that explain why leaders/brokers in the Community desire these contacts, relations and exchange visits.  I shall grossly summarize these here:

• Where relations with neighbouring Amerindian communities in the Caribbean are concerned, one dominant interest has been that of "cultural interchange": the idea here is that certain Carib traditions may have survived elsewhere in the Caribbean, thus, it is desirable to "retrieve" them, and perhaps offer one's own Carib traditions in exchange if they are not practised elsewhere. Hence, working exchange relationships become a central part of the local "recovery" of Amerindian traditions.

• "Greater strength," as my informants have put it, is another major consideration. By this they mean that locally, in Trinidad, they become less easily dismissed by the authorities or by commentators, when they appear wrapped in the presence of visiting Amerindians. Moreover, they put potentially hostile agents in the society on alert by showing that they have friends abroad, interested foreign observers concerned for the welfare and progress of Trinidad's Caribs--in other words, outside eyes are looking in and ears are overhearing. It is no wonder then that the leaders of the Carib Community strive to get Indigenous visitors from abroad during key events, such as the Santa Rosa Festival where there are those who would dispute whether it is proper to have a universal Catholic festival appear with a separate ethnic component to it.

A member of the delegation of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs presents a blanket to Norma Stephens, representing the then ailing Carib Queen, on 24 November, 1999, at the Santa Rosa Carib Community Centre in Arima. (Photo © Maximilian C. Forte, 1999)

• Recognition: this is related to the last paragraph. By this my informants mean that the active presence and collaboration of outside Amerindian representatives serves to demonstrate that they, the Arima Caribs, are in fact being recognized as Caribs by other recognized Caribs.

• Inspiration: some of my informants have testified that relations with Indigenous groups abroad has been a real source of encouragement and moral support. The President, Ricardo Bharath Hernandez, went on record with this sentiment, explicitly stating that in moments when he felt ready to simply surrender and quit the whole struggle, "something would happen" to change his course, and he names his participation as a guest of the Assembly of First Nations at its hemispheric conference in 1991, and he also points to the arrival of Indigenous visitors. He will emphasize that meeting with other groups, with many of the same problems and difficulties, has given him inspiration and strength to continue.

• Future promise: always at work amongst my key informants are visions of possible futures that involve a broader merger between themselves and their Amerindian friends in neighbouring territories.

There are of course other reasons one could list in addition. What I have also noticed, relating to Trinidadian society in general, is the growing tendency on the part of cultural groups, micro-communities and ethnic associations to engage in global networking, to form part of globalized homelands that transcend Trinidad's narrow and frail boundaries, to become members of "global tribes," active in vast diaspora-like configurations. This, I believe, is motivated by three intersecting and mutually reinforcing "needs:" security, stability, and special recognition. Neglect and perhaps hostility by the state is countered by the local entity that is despised or neglected seeking a globalized valorization and affirmation. This may also provide security, whether symbolic or material, insofar as as local entity feels that its needs (again, whether material or symbolic) can at least in part be satisfied by more rewarding relations with transnational actors. For the same reason, such transnational associations can also provide a sense of internal stability to local groups, knowing that respect and recognition can be derived from extra-local sources, and perhaps boost their visibility and legitimacy locally at the same time.

Therefore, amongst anthropologists, there are those of us who will see the Carib Community as becoming part of a globalized "imagined community," to borrow Benedict Anderson's phrase, to become constituents in a transnational "ethnoscape," to borrow Arjun Appadurai's term, whereby locality is produced in and through an internationalized network of identification.

These arguments, I believe, are plausible. However, I would not like certain more elemental aspects to be overlooked in the process, such as plainly affective ones. To quote a respondent in a survey I conducted in November-December 1998 among members of the Carib Community, that which attracted her the most to the Carib Community and made her want to become involved is owing to the fact that: "I like all these Amerindian visitors who come just to visit us, and stay with us, and all the events that happen around them. It does cheer we up!"

Related Links:

"The International Indigene" a paper by Maximilian C. Forte published in Issues in Caribbean Amerindian Studies.