As part of National Heroes and Heritage Month The Garifuna Heritage Foundation, TGHF, is proud to present to the Media and the General public our programme of activities for this Celebration, which will cover the period from March 3rd – 12 th 2023. This programme will include the 10th International Garifuna Conference and the 8th National Schools’ Garifuna Folk Festival.
Events:
March 3rd, 2023 – 8th National Schools’ Garifuna Folk Festival at the Victoria Park:
After having been postponed for the past two (2) years due to the COVID Pandemic, The Garifuna Heritage Foundation is collaborating with the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Sustainable Development & Culture with the organization of a Garifuna Heritage Cultural Rally featuring dancing, singing, drama, drumming and choral speech.
This festival will also feature exhibitions from Secondary Schools. These cultural items will be presented by Primary and
Secondary Schools students throughout St. Vincent and the Grenadines who will receive trophies for the best performances in the various categories. This festival will be held under the theme: “Children of Chatoyer, Fruits of our Heritage”. This event will take place at the Victoria Park on Friday 3 rd March 2023. It will commence at 9:00 with a march from the Bishop’s College grounds to Victoria Park, led by the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Band.
There is NO Entrance Fee
and the public is invited to attend.
Categories to be judged during the March Past
Largest Group Of Students
Most Organised Group
Best /Most Creative Use Of Garifuna Colors (Yellow, Black and White)
Performances at the Park
Best Drumology
Most Outstanding Garifuna Song
Most Outstanding Garifuna Dance
Most Outstanding Garifuna Choral Speech
Most Creative Presentation
Best Overall Garifuna Themed Presentation
Best Garifuna Fashion – Teacher
Best Garifuna Fashion – Student
Exhibition booths at the Park
Most Outstanding Traditional Booth
Most Outstanding Research Paper
Most Outstanding Oral Presentation
Most Creative Local Dish
March 9 th – 11 th ,2023
10th International Garifuna Conference at NIS Conference Room
The Garifuna Heritage Foundation (TGHF) in collaboration with the University of the West Indies Open Campus
(UWIOC), presents the 10th International Garifuna Conference from March 9th -11 th , 2023 held under the theme, “From Reaction to Action: Challenges and Opportunities for promoting Reparatory Justice for indigenous Peoples”.
March 9 th marks a significant day for the Garifuna People. On March 9 th 1797 a fleet of ships sailed from St. Vincent to Roatan in Central America which is part of present-day Honduras, carrying 2336 persons who had been kept as prisoners of war on Balliceaux. A total of 2026 survived the journey. This group of persons formed the beginning of the Exile of Garifuna people in present day Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and the USA.
In the early sixteenth century, indigenous people exercised sovereignty over all the islands of the Caribbean before the arrival of the Europeans. By the end of the nineteenth century, the vibrant population of indigenous people were practically decimated, their culture, lives and livelihoods were destroyed and the territories over which they once ruled were controlled by colonial empires whose leaders had little or no concern for the survival of indigenous populations.
This historical context illustrates how the indigenous people moved from being in control of their land and sovereignty to the present time when subsequent to the colonial aggression, there is now economic and social vulnerability presently being experienced by these indigenous communities. This Conference will highlight some theoretical ideas which are gaining currency within the
Reparations Movement as it seeks to actively promote and struggle for a Reparations Agenda in Caricom and the wider world. For Indigenous People, this development is buttressed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP). CARICOM has taken notice of the centrality of the issue of Reparations for the historic injustices of slavery and genocide in the Caribbean. Hence, in 2013 CARICOM launched the Caricom Reparations Commissions (CRC) to seek Reparations from European Powers for Slavery and Indigenous Genocide. Since then, the CRC developed a Ten Point Plan which outlines several strategic objectives for its work. As part of its ten-point Plan, the CRC advanced the need for a Proposal for an Indigenous People’s Development Plan for Survivors. To date it does not appear that this has been formulated to any great extent.
The challenge which faces CARICOM and the Indigenous People of the Caribbean is how do we define and utilize the
complex theoretical framework of Reparatory Justice in a pragmatic and practical manner to underpin a program of framing an Indigenous People’s Development Plan?
The CARICOM Call for an Indigenous People’s Development Plan provides an Opportunity to remedy not only past failures in relation to colonial policies an action but also that of successive post- Independence administrations. This Conference is an effort to contribute to the dialogue towards the formulation of and Indigenous Peoples Development Plan.
This IGC 2023 Conference will be conducted in HYBRID Modality (_ Face to Face and Virtually) and will be held at
the National Insurance Services Conference Room (NIS).
The Opening ceremony for the Conference takes place on Thursday 9th March, 2023 commencing at 1.p.m.
The Opening Ceremony’s Keynote Address will be delivered by Prof. Dr. Federico Lenzerini. Dr. Lenzerini is a Professor of Public International Law, European Union Law and International Human Rights Law at the Department of Law of the University of Siena (Italy). His fields of research include human rights law, asylum and refugee law, rights of indigenous peoples, international trade law and law of cultural heritage. He is the author of The Culturalization of Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2014) and the editor of Reparations for Indigenous Peoples, International and
Comparative Perspectives (Oxford University Press, 2008).
On Friday March 10th there will be two further Keynote Addresses. The first Keynote will be delivered by Dr. Amy Strecker who is an Associate Professor at the Sutherland School of Law University College, Dublin, Ireland. Dr. Strecker is a specialist in cultural heritage law, her work focuses in particular on the interplay between landscape and law, including heritage, environment, property and human rights.
The second Keynote Address on March 10th will be delivered by Dr. Garrey Dennie, an Associate Professor of History at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. He is presently part of a team of historians writing the history of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
As part of the session on March 10th there will be a panel of speakers presenting on the topic “Elements of Reparatory Justice for Indigenous People in the Caribbean”. Presentations will be delivered by participants from Belize, Dominica, Suriname, Guyana and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
On Saturday March 11th the final day of the Conference, a Keynote Address will be delivered by Prof. Ana Filipa Vrdoljak , Professor of Law, Faculty of Law and UNESCO Chair of International Law and Cultural Heritage at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. She is the author of International Law, Museums and the Return of Cultural Objects (Cambridge University Press, 2006, 2 nd edn forthcoming) and editor of Oxford Handbook on International Cultural Heritage Law with Francesco Francioni (Oxford University Press, 2020).
This will be followed by presentations by overseas delegates drawn from the Garifuna Diaspora. We are expecting a delegation of persons from the Garifuna Diaspora to visit St. Vincent and the Grenadines as part a Homecoming celebration. The Closing Keynote will be delivered by Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Ralph E. Gonsalves. Dr. Gonsalves has researched, written and published extensively on a range of matters touching upon the Caribbean, African, trade unionism, comparative political economy, and developmental issues generally. Among his latest publications are: History and the Future: A Caribbean Perspective (Quik Print, St. Vincent, 1994, The Case for Caribbean Reparatory Justice (2014) Uprising in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SFI Books 2020).
The Conference will end with a Closing Ceremony. Registration is Free and commences each day at 8:00 am.
We take this opportunity to invite the Media and the General Public to be present at these events.
