Michelle Loubon

Pres­i­dent of the Carib Com­mu­ni­ty Ri­car­do Bharath re­grets that the late Carib queen Valenti­na Med­i­na was not in a po­si­tion to at­tend the hand­ing-over cer­e­mo­ny of the land promised to the Carib com­mu­ni­ty at Blan­chisseuse Old Road, Ari­ma.He al­so lament­ed that the com­mu­ni­ty has not made more strides in the coun­try be­cause of a com­mu­ni­ty lead­er­ship cri­sis since they were viewed as a mi­nor­i­ty group.Med­i­na served the San­ta Rosa Carib com­mu­ni­ty in her ca­pac­i­ty as queen for 11 years un­til her death from can­cer re­cent­ly. Bharath made the com­ment dur­ing a cel­e­bra­tion of thanks­giv­ing for her life at San­ta Rosa RC Church, Ari­ma, on Fri­day last.Among those in at­ten­dance at the church ser­vice were act­ing Prime Min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an, Ari­ma MP Rodger Samuel, Ari­ma May­or Ghas­san Youseph and Sen­a­tor Pen­ne­lope Beck­les who of­fered the eu­lo­gy. Ms­gr Chris­t­ian Pereira was chief cel­e­brant.

Bharath said: "There is some dis­ap­point­ment she was nev­er able to see the ac­tu­al han­dover of the land. We are not ask­ing for a gift."In­ter­viewed on Wednes­day, Bharath said: "If on­ly she could have seen the mod­el vil­lage, that would have con­tributed to the sus­te­nance of the com­mu­ni­ty."I am sad­dened by her pass­ing and dis­ap­point­ed she nev­er had that op­por­tu­ni­ty."Bharath in­di­cat­ed the site would of­fer craft, a mu­se­um with in­dige­nous forms of agri­cul­ture and of­fer in­for­ma­tion on cas­sa­va (man­ioc) pro­cess­ing."It would be a liv­ing vil­lage. Many stu­dents would be able to get a hands-on ex­pe­ri­ence," he said.Bharath added: "I feel the gov­ern­ment needs to step up but some­how things are mov­ing too slow. Some­thing should be done for the last rem­nant of the first peo­ples."Quizzed on the el­e­va­tion of a new queen, Bharath said: "Af­ter the bur­ial (last Fri­day) a meet­ing would be called and her suc­ces­sor named."

Chal­lenges

Bharath said be­fore the com­mu­ni­ty came un­der the ju­ris­dic­tion of the Catholic Church, they were rep­re­sent­ed by a chief."But be­ing placed in a Catholic Mis­sion, they came un­der the con­trol of the priest."He lament­ed cul­ture and tra­di­tions have be­gun to die.Mean­while, women are emerg­ing with lead­er­ship qual­i­ties."San­ta Rosa Fes­ti­val was named for the first Carib queen."Med­i­na was the fifth Carib queen, from 1785, in what was known as the San­ta Rosa Mis­sion.Mak­ing ref­er­ence to the com­mu­ni­ty be­ing viewed as a mi­nor­i­ty, Bharath added: "We are seen as in­ca­pable of mak­ing de­ci­sions. The change is grad­ual."He called for mu­tu­al re­spect so they could move for­ward.