KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

The sec­re­tary of the San­ta Rosa First Peo­ples’ Com­mu­ni­ty Jacque­line Berna­dine Khan is ap­plaud­ing Mex­i­co on the move to de­cree 2025 as the Year of the In­dige­nous Woman.

Khan and Caci­ca of the Warao com­mu­ni­ty, Ani­cia Or­tan­cia Ben­jamin, were recog­nised by Am­bas­sador to Mex­i­co Víc­tor Hugo Morales Melédez at the Em­bassy Head­quar­ters, 12 Hayes Street, Port-of-Spain, on March 7.

The event, which cel­e­brat­ed the role of in­dige­nous women in T&T, was held in con­junc­tion with In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day.

“The ho­n­our of this recog­ni­tion is be­stowed not just up­on me but up­on the en­tire In­dige­nous com­mu­ni­ty, as it is a step for­ward for us in our con­tin­u­ing strug­gle to­wards vis­i­bil­i­ty and mean­ing­ful recog­ni­tion,” said Khan.

“May the his­to­ry of the San­ta Rosa First Peo­ples’ Com­mu­ni­ty be pre­served and taught to fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.”

The am­bas­sador of Mex­i­co high­light­ed Khan’s ded­i­ca­tion to doc­u­ment­ing the his­to­ry of the San­ta Rosa First Peo­ples’ Com­mu­ni­ty through her con­tin­ued re­search and con­tri­bu­tions to the writ­ing of sev­er­al books and pam­phlets.

He said, “Mrs Khan is the keep­er of the com­mu­ni­ty’s in­sti­tu­tion­al mem­o­ry, hav­ing served the com­mu­ni­ty for over three decades and ded­i­cat­ed her work to be­half of the San­ta Rosa com­mu­ni­ty.”

Like­wise, he recog­nised Ben­jamin, who he said of­fers great dy­namism to her com­mu­ni­ty as an eth­nic and cul­tur­al ref­er­ence of T&T.

He added, “Her vi­sion is to bring the her­itage of the Warao peo­ple to a broad­er, pos­i­tive, and in­for­ma­tive plat­form, with the aim of ad­dress­ing the needs of her com­mu­ni­ty.”

The Em­bassy of Mex­i­co aims to im­ple­ment ini­tia­tives that will not on­ly strength­en In­dige­nous women’s rights but al­so en­hance their par­tic­i­pa­tion in lead­er­ship and de­ci­sion-mak­ing.

“In par­tic­u­lar, in the next few months in Au­gust, on the oc­ca­sion of In­ter­na­tion­al In­dige­nous Rights Day, we will host a dis­cus­sion on the role of women in the pro­mo­tion of hu­man rights and the preser­va­tion of cus­toms and tra­di­tions,” the am­bas­sador said.

“The aim is to en­cour­age di­a­logue, re­flec­tions, and pro­pos­als to im­prove the sit­u­a­tion of in­dige­nous women. We will al­so share the ex­pe­ri­ence of the re­cent re­form of Ar­ti­cle 2 of the Mex­i­can Con­sti­tu­tion, which recog­nis­es and pro­tects the rights of in­dige­nous and Afro-de­scen­dant in­di­vid­u­als.

“And we will analyse the ef­fec­tive­ness of a Fem­i­nist For­eign Pol­i­cy, a po­si­tion tak­en for the ben­e­fit of women and specif­i­cal­ly in favour of in­dige­nous women, at a his­toric mo­ment in which we are wit­ness­ing a re­turn to con­ser­vatism in the area of hu­man rights.”

Min­is­ter of Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment and MP for Ari­ma Pen­ne­lope Beck­les said she was ho­n­oured to rep­re­sent a com­mu­ni­ty that has been the spir­i­tu­al and cul­tur­al home of the San­ta Rosa First Peo­ples’ Com­mu­ni­ty.

“In­dige­nous women, in par­tic­u­lar, hold a unique po­si­tion as knowl­edge keep­ers, care­givers, and de­fend­ers of cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty.

“Their wis­dom and re­silience have sus­tained com­mu­ni­ties through times of ad­ver­si­ty and change,” she said.

“Yet, they con­tin­ue to face bar­ri­ers to ed­u­ca­tion, eco­nom­ic in­de­pen­dence, and po­lit­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. If we are to tru­ly ho­n­our their con­tri­bu­tions, we must en­sure that they have ac­cess to re­sources, le­gal pro­tec­tions, and plat­forms for lead­er­ship.

“En­sur­ing gen­der equal­i­ty is not about shift­ing pow­er; it is about shar­ing it. It is about re­mov­ing the bar­ri­ers that have his­tor­i­cal­ly ex­clud­ed women and en­sur­ing that they have an ac­tive role in shap­ing their own fu­tures.

“The fu­ture we en­vi­sion—a fu­ture of eq­ui­ty, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, and pros­per­i­ty—can­not be built with­out the full and equal par­tic­i­pa­tion of In­dige­nous women, whose lead­er­ship, knowl­edge, and ad­vo­ca­cy are fun­da­men­tal to se­cur­ing the rights, re­sources, and recog­ni­tion that their com­mu­ni­ties de­serve.”

Beck­les shared the Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing and pro­mot­ing In­dige­nous rights, en­sur­ing that In­dige­nous women are ful­ly recog­nised, and in­vest­ing in eco­nom­ic and so­cial em­pow­er­ment.