Ke­jan Haynes

With unan­i­mous sup­port, the Na­tion­al Mu­si­cal In­stru­ment Bill, 2024, was passed in the Low­er House on Wednes­day night. The Op­po­si­tion’s sup­port was un­sur­pris­ing since the pur­pose of the bill is sim­ply to rat­i­fy, in law, that the steel­pan is the na­tion­al in­stru­ment of T&T. It will still have to be as­sent­ed to and pro­claimed by the Pres­i­dent. 

The bill has on­ly four claus­es. The first two de­fine what a steel­pan is; the third de­clares the pan the na­tion­al in­stru­ment; and the fourth man­dates the min­is­ter in charge of cul­ture to re­port to Par­lia­ment on the pro­mo­tion, de­vel­op­ment, and im­pact of the steel­pan na­tion­al­ly and glob­al­ly every two years.

“This leg­is­la­tion will es­tab­lish a de­fin­i­tive claim on the steel­pan as an in­ven­tion and in­no­va­tion that was cre­at­ed in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Wher­ev­er the steel­pan goes, it will be marked as a cre­ation of this na­tion,” said Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Ran­dall Mitchell, who pi­lot­ed the bill.

“The des­ig­na­tion of the steel­pan as our na­tion­al in­stru­ment will in­crease op­por­tu­ni­ties for strate­gic in­vest­ments and in­ten­si­fy pen­e­tra­tion in the high­ly com­pet­i­tive glob­al cul­tur­al and cre­ative mar­ket.”

Al­though they were not men­tioned in the bill, Mitchell ho­n­oured the con­tri­bu­tions of Win­ston Spree Si­mon, El­lie Manette, An­tho­ny Williams, Neville Jules, and Bertie Mar­shall for their prowess as steel­pan cre­ators and play­ers.

Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ly Ram­sey-Moore, who was in the Par­lia­ment view­ing gallery when the bill was passed, was ac­knowl­edged as one of its main dri­vers. In a state­ment, she said, “On be­half of Pan Trin­ba­go and the Trinidad and To­ba­go steel­band move­ment, I ex­tend our heart­felt grat­i­tude to the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go for this for­mal ac­knowl­edge­ment of the steel­pan as our na­tion­al mu­si­cal in­stru­ment.

“This his­toric step cel­e­brates our rich cul­tur­al her­itage and ho­n­ours the lega­cy of all who have con­tributed to the steel­pan’s jour­ney. Thank you for recog­nis­ing and el­e­vat­ing our na­tion­al pride. This mile­stone not on­ly val­i­dates our past but al­so pro­pels us to­wards a vi­brant fu­ture where the steel­pan con­tin­ues to in­spire and unite us all.”

The steel­pan has been des­ig­nat­ed the on­ly acoustic in­stru­ment cre­at­ed in the 20th cen­tu­ry. The Unit­ed Na­tions has now recog­nised Au­gust 11 as World Steel­pan Day.

The bill was al­so passed unan­i­mous­ly in the Sen­ate yes­ter­day.