Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is en­cour­ag­ing cit­i­zens to cel­e­brate di­ver­si­ty. She made the ap­peal in her mes­sage to the na­tion in ob­ser­vance of yes­ter­day's In­di­an Ar­rival Day cel­e­bra­tions. In her mes­sage she said, "Our com­mem­o­ra­tion to­day her­alds how we have grown to­geth­er, and how we have demon­strat­ed that even as peo­ples from dif­fer­ent lands, var­ied in our cul­tures, and dif­fer­ent in our cus­toms, we can cel­e­brate our in­di­vid­u­al­i­ty and unique­ness, while still ap­pre­ci­at­ing our di­ver­si­ty as strength."

Per­sad-Bisses­sar not­ed that the be­gin­ning of In­di­an in­den­ture­ship in Trinidad was a key mo­ment in his­to­ry from which there were lessons to be learned. "Per­haps one of the great­est lessons learnt through the rich and di­verse his­to­ry of our na­tion is that even as we held strong­ly and loy­al­ly to our ori­gins, we al­so stood firm in our re­solve to grow to­geth­er, live to­geth­er, thrive to­geth­er and achieve to­geth­er as one peo­ple, and one na­tion."

The Prime Min­is­ter said the oc­ca­sion was al­so a time to fo­cus on equal­i­ty. She said, "We as a peo­ple can lay claim to work­ing to­wards the ful­fil­ment of that ide­al to ex­ist in a time where we hold firm­ly to who we are...while shar­ing our space and our lives with each oth­er, with no one com­mu­ni­ty hav­ing its in­ter­est su­per­seded by an­oth­er."