RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA
rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

The fu­ner­al of Moru­ga's Grand Chief and Chief of First Peo­ples, Paul Navar­ro, is tak­ing place to­day in Moru­ga.

The fu­ner­al is the first ful­ly in­dige­nous Amerindi­an cer­e­mo­ny to take place in Moru­ga in over 150 years.

Chief Navar­ro died at the age of 102 ear­li­er this week.

His broth­er, Ezi­dore Navar­ro, 99, broke down in tears as the cas­ket was wheeled in­to the Grand Hall of the Moru­ga Co­coa Mu­se­um.

Prince Er­ic Lewis, who is now act­ing Chief, blew a conch while the sound of the marac and bon­go drums echoed through the halls.

Mourn­ers wore tra­di­tion­al wear, while a wood-carved Amerindi­an stat­ue rep­re­sent­ing the zemis of the an­ces­tors looked over the cas­ket.

Lewis said Chief Navar­ro was sup­posed to be ho­n­oured in a few weeks as the old­est Chief of the Re­gion.

He said Chief Navar­ro's dy­ing wish was for the First Peo­ples to be rec­og­nized in T&T for their valu­able con­tri­bu­tion.

He said the First Peo­ple of Moru­ga were now unit­ed and had brought to­geth­er oth­er in­dige­nous peo­ple across the coun­try.

Fol­low­ing the view­ing at the hall, the body is ex­pect­ed to be tak­en to the Gran Chemin ceme­tery for bur­ial.

Chief Navar­ro's first head­piece, a dream catch­er or­na­ment, a deer horn, a wood­en flute, a crys­tal stone for com­mu­ni­ca­tion, as well as oth­er an­cient arte­facts, were buried with Navar­ro's body.