RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A memo­r­i­al will be built soon in ho­n­our of the late Amerindi­an Chief Paul Navar­ro, who died ear­li­er this week at the age of 102.

Un­der stormy skies yes­ter­day, Navar­ro’s fu­ner­al took place at the Grand Hall of the Moru­ga co­coa mu­se­um.

Dressed in full Amerindi­an re­galia, Navar­ro looked re­gal as he lay in the cas­ket, his lined face adorned with a feath­ered head­dress and a smile.

The fu­ner­al was at­tend­ed by guests from the First Peo­ple’s Com­mu­ni­ty and was recog­nised as the first ful­ly in­dige­nous Amerindi­an cer­e­mo­ny to take place in Moru­ga in over 150 years.

As the body was wheeled in­to the Grand Hall, Navar­ro’s broth­er Izadore Navar­ro, 99 and Izadore’s daugh­ter Cherisse Ram­lo­gan broke down in tears.

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

Lewis per­formed all the rites.

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. 

Navar­ro was born April 28, 1919 to Juan Navar­ro and Maria Tril­la, who lived to be 112 and 103 years re­spec­tive­ly. Navar­ro was a for­mer sailor who trav­elled the globe but nev­er mar­ried.

Known as the old­est Amerindi­an chief in the West­ern Hemi­sphere, Navar­ro was ho­n­oured at an award cer­e­mo­ny in 2020, hav­ing held the ti­tle of Grand Chief of Moru­ga and the sur­round­ing re­gion.

Lewis told Guardian Me­dia that Chief Navar­ro’s dy­ing wish was for the First Peo­ple to be recog­nised in T&T for their valu­able con­tri­bu­tion. 

“He want­ed us to have recog­ni­tion. We would like to have our hol­i­day per­ma­nent­ly. Our chief asked for that,” he added.

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

Chief of the San­ta Rosa First Peo­ple Ri­car­do Bharat-Her­nan­dez, who at­tend­ed the fu­ner­al, said recog­ni­tion was im­por­tant to the in­dige­nous peo­ple.

“We are here to sup­port his fam­i­ly and the peo­ple of Moru­ga who he spent most of his time with. We have lost an­oth­er el­der. Most of our el­ders have crossed this 100-year-old mark. He want­ed recog­ni­tion and we have come a long way but we still feel as if we are not be­ing tak­en se­ri­ous­ly,” Bharat-Her­nan­dez said.

Chris­to Adon­ish al­so ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the rel­a­tives and friends of Chief Navar­ro.

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.

Fol­low­ing the view­ing at the hall, there was a pro­ces­sion to the Gran Chemin ceme­tery where the late Chief was buried. 

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