Santa Rosa Carib Queen Medina dies

Arima, Trinidad (UCTP Taíno News) – Elder Valentina Medina, the Carib Queen of the Santa Rosa Carib Community of Trinidad passed away on April 23, 2011. Queen Medina succumbed to complications arising from breast cancer. She was 78 years old.

Medina was the fifth Carib Queen since the introduction of the title in 1875. She served the community in this capacity for 11 years.

Chief of the Santa Rosa Carib Community Ricardo Hernandez-Bharath, who visited Medina just before her passing, stated “she had served her community well.”

Commenting to local news sources Hernandez-Bharath noted that "there will definitely be an indigenous service on the day of the funeral."

The Santa Rosa Carib Council will meet to discuss the appointment of a new Queen in one month.

UCTPTN 04.25.2011

Amerindian Heritage Day to be celebrated in Trinidad

Trinidad and Tobago (UCTP Taino News) - Amerindian Heritage Day will be commemorated this year in Trinidad and Tobago with a week long commemoration from October 13-19, 2008. Taking place in the town of Arima, the program will include ceremonies, lectures, and special cultural presentations hosted by the Santa Rosa Carib Community. Indigenous delegations from around the Caribbean region are set to attend the events, which will include a meeting of the Caribbean Organization of Indigenous Peoples (C0IP). “We are looking forward to attending this important regional meeting and continuing to work in solidarity with our relatives keeping our future generations in our hearts and minds” stated Roberto Borrero, a representative of the United Confederation of Taino People. Indigenous delegates from Guyana, Dominica, Suriname, Belize, Saint Vincent, Puerto Rico, and other countries are expected to attend.

UCTPTN 09.21.2008

Taino Welcomed by Caribbean Organization of Indigenous Peoples

Arima, Trinidad (UCTP Taino News) – On October 16th, 2007 Indigenous leaders from throughout the Caribbean meet in Arima, Trinidad to discuss critical regional issues under the auspices of the Caribbean Organization of Indigenous Peoples (COIP). Hosted by Trinidad’s Santa Rosa Carib Community, delegates attending the COIP meeting represented Indigenous Peoples from Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, and Puerto Rico.

In an historic affirmation of Caribbean Indigenous solidarity, COIP officially welcomed Puerto Rico’s Consejo General de Tainos Borincanos as full voting members. As COIP is a recognized by Indigenous Peoples, governments, inter-governmental organizations as a Caribbean regional organization, the inclusion of the Consejo General now provides an opportunity for Boriken Taino to officially raise their concerns within this collective.

During the meeting, another important agenda item focused on COIP representation at International Forums such as the United Nations. The increasing visibility of COIP at this level is already evident as a communication from the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues was received and transmitted to the participants during the opening ceremony for the meeting.

Held in Arima’s Town Hall, the opening ceremony for the important meeting began with welcoming remarks from the honorable Mayor of Arima, Adrian Cabralis, as well as Government Ministers, Excellencies Penelope Beckles and Joan Yuille-Wiliams.

Funding for many of the delegates to attend the meeting as well as the concurrent activities celebrating Trinidad’s “Amerindian Heritage Week” was made available by the government of Trinidad and Tobago.

Carib descendants ponder another holiday

Carib Chief Ricardo Bharath-Hernandez, with calabash in hand,
leads followers in prayer at yesterday's Sacred Smoke Ceremony.

PRESIDENT of the Carib Community in Arima, Ricardo Bharath-Hernandez, yesterday called on the Government to show more “meaningful recognition” to the indigenous people. However, MP for the area, Pennelope Beckles said Cabinet has already appointed a committee to look into the needs of the group.

Bharath-Hernandez, who was speaking at the Carib Centre on Paul Mitchell Street during a function to mark the 7th anniversary of Amerindian Heritage Day, also made an impassioned plea for state protection of sacred sites, lands for his people, and an end to the destruction of medicinal herbs and plants used in craft making, by quarrying activities in the Tamana Forest.

“The Carib community will continue to struggle for meaningful recognition. We think the time is now for government to appropriate a portion of land for the survival of this community,” he said.

The Carib president, who earlier conducted a sacred smoke ceremony at the foot of the statue of Amerindian freedom fighter Hyarima on Hollis Avenue, said the Caribs needed their own village to ensure preservation of their heritage.

“We should have the choice to live together as a community, if we want to,” he said.

“All our indigenous materials for making crafts are being lost, our wild life is being hunted, and medicinal herbs destroyed. Soon all of these things will be lost forever.”

Bharath-Hernandez added, “Our burial grounds are being destroyed and people are digging up all the artifacts and are selling them as far as New York for a few dollars. We have no laws to protect these sites.”

Bharath-Hernandez said the jury was still out on whether the group should demand a public holiday. He said although the group was celebrating its seventh anniversary of recognition, there were still people who did not know about the event. Bharath-Hernandez also heads the Secretariat of the Caribbean Organisation of Indigenous Peoples (COIP).

Beckles said instruments were already handed out to the Cabinet-appointed committee “to liaise with the Carib community to find out what their needs are and to make recommendations to the Cabinet.” She said she was sure that some of the requests made by the group will be “realised”, adding that Government has already begun to structure the quarrying industry.

Monsignor Christian Perreira, parish priest of the Santa Rosa Church, admitted that there was much more “healing” to take place between the First Peoples and the Church.

“This relationship still has to be fleshed out,” he said. “The apology and intention are there, the atonement is there and while in very many ways the First Peoples have accepted that atonement, there is still the healing to come.”

Fr. Perreira added that the country’s oldest feast, The Feast of Santa Rosa, which is shared by the Church and the Carib community, has sought to bridge the divide for the past 220 years.