Carib shaman (medicine man) Cristo Adonis, with hat at right, at
Hyarima statue, Arima, conducting the smoke ceremony during the
World Indigenous Day celebrations last year. PHOTO: TREVOR BURNETT

T&T’s cultural contribution to the world at the opening ceremony of the Fifth Summit of the Americas was considered quite a disgrace in some quarters. Expressing much ire over the assumed snubbing of the national instrument at the summit’s opening ceremony, produced by masman Brian Mac Farlane, were members of the steelband fraternity.

Pan Trinbago president Patrick Arnold said, “It was quite disappointing that persons were placed there (Friday’s opening ceremony) to mimic steelband. “Can you imagine in the land where steelband was invented a live steelband could not be seen or heard? “This cultural ceremony was meant to expose T&T to the world at the opening of the Fifth Summit of the Americas. “Steelband pioneers like Victor “Toty” Wilson, Winston “Spree” Simon and Oscar “Bogart” Pile must be somersaulting in their graves.

“It is important too, that respected and responsible steelbandsmen who participated in this act must be careful with the false values their services are hired for. “T&T,” Arnold said, “cannot be compared with Brazil and several other carnival nations where costuming is concerned, yet we make a cultural presentation to the world with 90 per cent Carnival costumes… and not a live steelband. “Whoever is responsible for this mimicry of steelband must give Pan Trinbago an explanation for this insult,” the pan boss said.

Are the Caribs dead?
Another ugly feature of the cultural ceremony was highlighted by the shaman (medicine man) of the Carib Community Cristo Adonis. Adonis said, “It was disgusting and quite a bitter pill to swallow with the disrespect shown to the First Peoples.

Here in T&T we boast of our Carib ancestry, yet the world was presented with people acting as Caribs. “I have no political allegiances, I simply work for the good of the Carib community. The world when viewing the cultural ceremony must think that the Caribs are dead. “For whoever is responsible, am I a living dead?” Adonis questioned.

They parang the wrong house
In another disgracing of T&T cultural arts, parang queen Alicia Jaggesar of Los Alumnos de San Juan, is also annoyed. “Whoever is responsible for projecting parang for 30 seconds exact, or the four lines I sang, please think again,” she said. “If the Commonwealth meeting in November is to be anything like the Summit of Americas, count us out.

“I could do without that kind of international embarrassment in my life. To be the parang lover I am, I went out and did research with quite a lot of the parang pioneers, including the Lara Brothers, Henry Pereira and Sonny Christian, only to be insulted like this. “Whosoever is attempting to be in charge of these supposedly cultural acts, in future my children are watching, please count me out,” Jaggesar said.