Mem­bers of the First Peo­ples of T&T are con­sid­er­ing ad­vo­cat­ing for a per­ma­nent pub­lic hol­i­day. 

Speak­ing at a re-in­tern­ment cer­e­mo­ny for the re­mains of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 60 of the coun­try’s First Peo­ples at Red House in Port-of-Spain, on Sat­ur­day, Chief of the San­ta Rosa First Peo­ples Com­mu­ni­ty Ri­car­do Bharath-Her­nan­dez claimed that his mem­bers have been con­sid­er­ing call­ing for the hol­i­day af­ter a one-off one was grant­ed on Oc­to­ber 14, 2017.

Bharath-Her­nan­dez ex­plained that his com­mu­ni­ty was ini­tial­ly against an an­nu­al ob­ser­vance as they felt that there were al­ready too many pub­lic hol­i­days in T&T. 

“We did not want a hol­i­day for peo­ple to have leisure and not par­tic­i­pate in the in­dige­nous cel­e­bra­tions and ob­ser­vances,” Bharath-Her­nan­dez said, as he claimed that his mem­bers’ per­spec­tive has slow­ly evolved. 

Stat­ing that the lo­ca­tion, which serves as the home of the coun­try’s Par­lia­ment, be­came sa­cred with the dis­cov­ery of the re­mains dur­ing ini­tial restora­tion work on the build­ing, in 2013, Bharath-Her­nan­dez called on Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans to con­tin­ue to re­spect the rights of the coun­try’s in­dige­nous peo­ples go­ing for­ward.

“You sit on the re­mains of our an­ces­tors. Now they have awak­ened, we must al­ways be con­scious of how we treat with our in­dige­nous peo­ples,” Bharath-Her­nan­dez said. 

He al­so sought to ad­dress de­trac­tors, whom he said claimed that Sat­ur­day’s cer­e­mo­ny was unim­por­tant and in­signif­i­cant. 

“Just like most of us treat our dead with re­spect, and use the ap­pro­pri­ate tra­di­tions, we feel very strong­ly that the re­mains of our an­ces­tors should be re­spect­ed and treat­ed like­wise,” Bharath-Her­nan­dez said. 

He al­so thanked the Gov­ern­ment for ho­n­our­ing its com­mit­ment to fa­cil­i­tate the cer­e­mo­ny and erect a mon­u­ment at the site. 

“The re-in­tern­ment of these hu­man re­mains has pro­vid­ed a sense of peace, shel­ter, and se­cu­ri­ty for the First Peo­ples. At the same time, it has opened a door of op­por­tu­ni­ty for our chal­lenges and needs to be ex­pressed,” Bharath-Her­nan­dez said. 

In her ad­dress at the cer­e­mo­ny, Min­is­ter of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Cul­ture and the Arts Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly said that the cer­e­mo­ny was an im­por­tant part of ho­n­our­ing the con­tri­bu­tion made by the First Peo­ples to the de­vel­op­ment of T&T. 

She not­ed that the site where the re­mains were found had been care­ful­ly ex­ca­vat­ed by a team of ar­chae­ol­o­gists. 

“Re­spect­ing and ho­n­our­ing the tra­di­tions of our in­dige­nous peo­ples is cen­tral to pro­tect­ing and pre­serv­ing our her­itage as a peo­ple,” Gads­by-Dol­ly said. 

Al­so in at­ten­dance at the cer­e­mo­ny was Speak­er of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Brigid An­nisette-George, Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Clarence Ramb­harat, Con­gress of the Peo­ple po­lit­i­cal leader Car­olyn Seep­er­sad-Bachan, In­ter-Re­li­gious Or­gan­i­sa­tion (IRO) pres­i­dent Canon Knol­ly Clarke and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of in­dige­nous or­gan­i­sa­tions from Venezuela, Guyana, Suri­name, and Do­mini­ca. 

Since restora­tion work on the Red House be­gan in 2011, Par­lia­ment has been tem­porar­i­ly re­lo­cat­ed to the In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Cen­tre at Wright­son Road.

The work, which has cost an es­ti­mat­ed $441 mil­lion, is ex­pect­ed to be com­plet­ed lat­er this year, with the build­ing set to be of­fi­cial­ly re­opened in Jan­u­ary next year.