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THE CARIBS OF DOMINICA

  • BBC—Video Nation: CARIBS, by Saturine Dodds—abstract of online video clip: "Saturine is contemplating the future of her tribe, the Caribs. Though the population of the Carib Territories is over 3,000 she believes you will only find about 300 pure Caribs among them. In the past the Carib Chiefs would force women to leave the Territory if they married a non-Carib man but now they are not so strict".
  • The Carib Crafts—a short page with photos depicting the products of Carib weaving in Dominica.
  • “Carib Indians Face Identity Battle,” reproduced from a CANA-Reuters news article, no author or date provided—Extract: “The Carib Indians were portrayed by the Europeans who invaded the Caribbean 500 years ago as cannibal warriors who ate their victims. ‘Spanish flesh caused indigestion, the French were delicate in taste while the English were tough,’ a 16th century said of the supposed culinary taste of this proud, resilient people. Caribs first arrived at the lush tropical island of Dominica 1000 years ago after sailing up from the banks of the Orinoco River in South America in their gommier tree canoes. Today just 3500 members live in a mountain reservation set up in 1903 as their final refuge after centuries of persecution by invaders from across the Atlantic who came with guns and hunted the Caribs with dogs. The Caribs in turn showered them with arrows tipped with poison from the machineel tree. Their resistance was fierce and this was the last Caribbean island to be colonised by Europeans….”
  • The Carib Reserve of Dominica: Wild Side Destinations writes, “Some of the last survivors of the Carib race, which gave its name to the Caribbean, live on the east cost of Dominica. Once these proud and warlike people held sway over the Eastern Caribbean, the few hundred remaining Caribs were forced to the remotest part of Dominica and forgotten  However, in 1903 they were officially granted their own territory.  Caribs still build their canoes in the traditional way of hollowing out the gommier trees…”
  • Carib Territory Guest House-Crayfish River, Carib Territory, Dominica, West Indies, Tel/Fax: (767) 445 7256, E-Mail: Caribgh@Hotmail.Com
  • The Carib Territory, in brief—Extract: “The mixed descendants of the last Island Caribs who inhabited the Lesser Antilles live on the north-east coast of Dominica. This simple fact has been so exaggerated and distorted over the last thirty years of tourism publicity, that there tends to be much misunderstanding, bewilderment and eventual disappointment among visitors who come to view the Carib Territory as one of the 'attractions' of Dominica. Some years ago, before the motorable road went completely through this area, I was travelling with a group of visitors who had rocked and jolted across the island to see the 'Indian Reservation' as they called it. Having passed through all the scattered hamlets which made up the isolated community, the vehicle reached the end of the road and turned around to go back to Roseau. Immediately there was the plaintive wail of North American accents from the rear of the land rover 'but where's the Carib Village?' It struck me at once what the problem was. Somewhere, in all the glossy promotional hype, they had been led to believe that there they would see a primitive tribe in its last halcyon days; with thatched huts, grass skirts, a chief in feather and perhaps a few hulahula dancers. It is nothing like that at all.
  • “The Carib Territory,” Washington Times—Extract: “A trip through Carib terrority takes you back in time. Descendants of the adventrous seafarers from the Orinoco and Northwest Guyana, the Caribs-from whom the Caribbean got its name-live in eight villages nestled in the mountains and mountain slopes of the east coast of Dominica. The Caribs were the first Dominicans, or people of Waitukubuli as they called their island….”
  • The Caribs in Dominica/The Caribs T oday, by Kevin Menhinick—Extract: “In 1763, following a prolonged war, the British finally wrested power from the French an d officially declared Dominica a British colony. Shortly after this the Caribs, who had been living quietly on Dominica's north-east coast, were allocated 232 a cres of land as their 'reserve'. This is where they remain to this day. Sadly, o ver the years the Carib culture has been eroded. Today the Caribs worship at mai nly Roman Catholic churches and speak English and French Creole; commensurate with the rest of Dominica. Although the Carib language has long since disappeared it still exists in many of the place names: eg. Calibishie, Bataka and Salibia. Only a relatively small number of Caribs today are 100% pure bred. But even those with only a small amount of Carib blood are fiercely proud of their unique heritage…. Today, approximately 3,400 people live in 450 residential homes on a 3,700 acre reserve, which stretches for nine miles on the north-east coast of Dominica. Overlooking the raging Atlantic Ocean, the Carib Territory is the only district where it is not possible to own or buy land. The land is, in fact, owned by the Carib Council, thus ensuring an element of independence for Dominica's native people. A Carib person today is know as a Karifuna. The Waitukubili Kairifuna Development Agency (WAIKADA) is a non-profit making organisation which focuses on the preservation and development of the Carib culture and also hopes to improve the quality of life for its people. The Kalinago Centre, a Carib documentation and archival centre, is on King George Street in Roseau. Here traditional Carib art and crafts are sold and information on the island's indigenous people is available. There is also a fascinating historical photographic display. This centre was one of WAIKADA's first achievements. The creation of a radio station in the Territory and the establishment of a community library, which will also serve as a museum and a cultural centre, are high on the list of priorities. The Carib Territory is made up of eight hamlets with Bataka being the largest. Other areas include Sinecou, Salybia and Crayfish River. The population is very young, with 70% being under 30 years of age. Most children of secondary school age attend St. Andrew's Methodist School in nearby Londonderry. However, a handful go to schools in Marigot, Portsmouth and Roseau….”
  • The Caribs of Dominica: "Introducing the indigenous people of Dominica to the rest of the world is but a small contribution to the already growing effort by the Caribs themselves. Like a nation within a nation their culture has survived the test of time, which is a tribute to their steadfastness and resilience."
  • “Caught in the Crossfire: Across the Caribbean to the Windward Islands, where small-scale banana growers are deserting the battle front”, New Internationalist, Issue 317, October 1999: “‘Lots of small growers, particularly the older ones, are giving up their banana plots because it’s all getting far too difficult, far too regimented,’ says Irvince Auguiste, as we pass a bedraggled collection of abandoned plants on a steep hillside. For ten years Irvince was the elected Chief – ‘rather like being Mayor’ he says – of the Carib Territory, through which we are now driving. In 1902 some 3,000 acres on the east coast of the island were handed back by the British to the few remaining descendants of the pre-Columbian Carib peoples. Today, 3,700 of their heirs hold the same land in common, from which some 200 growers still produce bananas. They are a reminder, if one were needed, that this is a special place….”
  • Discussion—“The Carib”, A dialog from Bob Corbett's Haiti list, February 1999: contains debates on cannibalism and other topics concerning the Dominica Caribs
  • Dominica—“… The island was sighted by Columbus in 1493. English and French attempts at settlement were thwarted by the Caribs, who had taken it earlier from the Arawaks. An Anglo-French treaty of 1748 left Dominica in Carib hands, but both powers continued to covet it. The island definitively passed to the British in 1815. Hostilities between the British and the Caribs led to the virtual extinction of the Caribs, who number about 500 and occupy a reservation on the eastern side of the island.
  • Dominica, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000 -- Released by the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, February 23, 2001—Extract: “There are credible reports of discrimination against Carib women who are married to, or who live with, non-Carib men, making it difficult for such couples to obtain permits to build homes within the reservation. Building permits are obtained from the Carib Council. Until 1979 the Carib Constitution allowed Carib men married to non-Carib women to continue living on the Carib reserve but dictated that Carib women married to non-Carib men had to move off the reservation. Although the law has changed, practice is not yet in keeping with the law. In one case, a Carib woman in a common-law relationship with a non-Carib man who tried to build a house on land reserved for her family received threats that her house would be burned down. An estimated 25 percent of the Carib Indian population is believed to be in mixed marriages or relationships”
  • “Dominica History,” in Caribbean Beat Magazine —Extract: “First settled by Carib and Arawak Amerindians, who called the island Wai'tukubuli ("tall is her body")--Visited by Christopher Columbus 1493; he named the island Dominica, because it was a Sunday--Fought over by the British and French during the 17th and 18th centuries, finally becoming British in 1805….”
  • Dominican Caribs visit Guyana in canoe—“Dominica Caribs complete historic 700-mile journey, by Miranda La Rose: “A 10-MEMBER group of Dominican Caribs yesterday arrived aboard the Gli Gli - a 60-foot dugout canoe, in the Pomeroon River in a symbolic gesture to reconnect the 3,000 strong Caribs of Dominica with surviving Carib communities in Guyana. The `Gli-Gli' is a small aggressive hawk revered by ancient Carib warriors as a totemic symbol of bravery.
  • Dominica Rural Enterprise Project, Official Launch—information on the 1998 launch of D-REP—extract: “The Dominica Rural Enterprise Project (D-REP), a joint project of the Government of Dominica, International Fund for Agricultural Development and the Caribbean Development Bank, will officially launch its program of activities in the Carib Territory at Point Salybia on Monday January 19, 1998 at 3:30pm. D-REP's overall objectives is to offer small holders and other rural poor households, particularly women-headed households, the option to broaden their income base and reduce risk through the encouragement of a wide range of productive activities….”
  • Drillbits & Tailings: September 1, 1996—this report presents information on plans by an Australian mining transnational involving Dominica—extract: “Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP), Australia's largest mining company and the world's largest private copper producer, is quietly planning a copper mine in Dominica, a tropical island nation in the eastern Caribbean, sparking fears that BHP will bring destruction of ecology and lifestyle….BHP's proposed exploration area partly covers and is directly upstream of the Carib territory, the lands of the last surviving indigenous Amerindian culture in the Caribbean. Exploration and mining would degrade three of the country's major rivers with siltation and acid drainage, two of which -- the Pagua and the Castle Bruce -- border the Carib lands and are used by the 3,400 Caribs for drinking, washing, fishing and agriculture….Carib Chief Hilary Frederick says that he has not been contacted by either the government or the company. ‘It will be very bad for the Caribs if the forest is damaged; we rely on it for our waterflow and canoe building,’ Frederick says. In the final analysis, it means the Caribs will be diminished’.”
  • In Memorial: Hilary Belgrave Fredrick—“Carib Chief Passes On”, Indian Country Today, November 15, 2004: Extract—“Hilary Belgrave Frederick, 45, died Nov. 3 in Roseau General Hospital, Dominica, West Indies of tuberculosis infection and complications from pneumonia. A former elected chief of Dominica's Carib people during three separate terms, and both a Senator and Representative in Dominica's House of Assembly at various times, the young chief was also a delegate to several international conferences on indigenous peoples held in Europe, Asia, Central and South America and the United States….”
  • Indigenous People, the First Settlers —Extract, apparently designed for tourists with expectations of a racial sort: “The mixed descendants of the last Island Caribs who inhabited the Lesser Antilles live on the north-east coast of Dominica. This simple fact has been so exaggerated and distorted over the last thirty years of tourism publicity, that there tends to be much misunderstanding, bewilderment and eventual disappointment among visitors who come to view the Carib Territory as one of the ‘attractions’ of Dominica.”—this page also features extracts from Lennox Honychurch’s, The Dominica Story.
  • Interview with Chief Garnette Joseph: An interview conducted by Kalinago e.V., on the topics of the role and powers of the Chief, challenges facing the Carib Reserve and the issue of race.
  • Kalinago e.v.- Association for the Promotion of the last Indigenous People of the Caribbean: a German organization that, as the name states, seeks to promote the Caribs of Dominica, claiming they are "the last" Indigenous people of the region.
  • Martinique 1999, Earlham College—a page of what appear to be student reminiscences of a trip to Dominica, often making comparisons to Martinique. What may be of interest are the passages devoted to visits of the Carib Territory and meeting with Chief Hilary Frederick. Extract: “ ‘We’re still here’—words carry another weight when attributed to their source, Chief Hilary Frederick of the Carib Council, Carib Territory, Dominica/Waitukubuli. Chief Frederick offered them as a message to the world when we spoke with him during our 5-day stay in Dominica. The Carib people, originally known as Kalinago and now called Karifuna, are of Amerindian ancestry--descendants of the original inhabitants of the islands. Their communally-owned Territory does not follow the reservation model developed in North America since their representation in government and contribution to national policy is considerable. The Earlham group, joined by three French Antillean students who have visited our campus under the Martinique Exchange, visited sites of interest within the Territory; purchased baskets, pots, and other handcrafts prepared by local artisans; and met with community leaders to learn about local history and social and political structures….”
  • On the Voyage of the Gli-Gli, by Simon Lee, Caribbean Beat Magazine, May-June 2003, Issue 61—Extract: “The Kalinago were building a 35-foot dugout canoe in preparation for a voyage down the islands, from Dominica back to their ancestral homelands at Santa Monica and Kabakaburi on the Pomeroon River in Guyana. It was no coincidence that I returned to Dominica just in time for the sea trials of the Gli Gli canoe, hewn by 20 men from the trunk of a single gommier tree felled high in the rainforest and dragged down to Salybia. Jacob Frederick, the Carib artist who'd first conceived of the epic voyage, had decorated Gli Gli's blue hull with a traditional yellow-and-roucou Amerindian design.”
  • Quest of the Carib Canoe—Extract: “In 1995 Tortolian Artist Aragorn Dick-Read travelled to the island of Dominica and met a local Carib Indian craftsman called Jacob Frederick. Their collective creative minds combined to form the idea behind what would become much larger than their sum; to build and sail a traditional Carib Indian dugout canoe from Dominica to Guyana and up the Orinoco river.  The journey's end would symbolically re-unite the 3500 Caribs isolated on Dominica with their tribal ancestors that flourish in Guyana, a country covered and connected mainly from the Orinoco's many tributaries….”
  • “Race, Ethnicity, and Social Stratification in three Windward Islands,” by Klaus de Albuquerque and Jerome L. McElroy (September, 1999)—Abstract: “This study examines 1991 census data in three majority African-Caribbean societies: Dominica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent. It concludes that traditional stratification models based on race/colour and colonial privilege are outdated. Education explains most inter-group income and occupational differences. After two decades of political independence and economic modernization, the top tier of the hierarchy is comprised of an educated elite of black professionals, politicians and businessmen. With the possible exception of the Carib Indians at the bottom, minority groups are very small with limited socio-economic impact.”
  • Remnants of Conquest: The Island Caribs and Their Visitors, 1877-1998, by Peter Hulme: A brief overview of the contents of this book on the Caribs of Dominica
  • Report on the Caribs of Dominica, United Nations Economic and Social Council, Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Forty-fifth session, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/34/Add.1, 19 July 1993—extract: “In the reply submitted by the Government it was stated that settled minorities existed in Dominica. These were the Caribs which were recognized as an ethnic group in the Carib Reserve Council Act. Pursuant to this act, Caribs were vested with reserved lands and provided with a degree of local autonomy by way of devolution of power. As to the question of whether the Caribs benefit from cultural and educational institutions specifically designed to meet their needs, it was stated that they benefited from such institutions to a limited extent only, since formal educational institutions were fully integrated. Like other segments of the population of Dominica, the Caribs had the right and the possibility to participate to some extent in the planning, implementation and benefits of development policies through the local government authorities. The Caribs benefited from affirmative action as they were vested with reserved lands and special status had been conferred on the Carib Council and their Chief. Furthermore, they enjoyed direct representation in the national legislature of Dominica as they had substantial control over one Parliamentary seat….”
  • Welcome to The History of Dominica page: “….The Caribs seemed to be very much into raiding and the men aggressively attacked the Igneri, stealing their women when it was deemed feasible. The Caribs were organised and were very successful in eliminating the Igneri from many of the Caribbean islands, including Dominica.
  • "Wai'Ti Kubuli--How Tall is Her Body", by Alex Manzi Fe: A travel-type account that includes the following--"The Caribs, however,with their light bronze skin, straight black hair and flat faces far more resemble a Malaysian type. The story goes that the Caribs overcame and butchered the peaceful Arawak. Now they live peacefully in their own Carib Territory, 3,782 acres of beach, forest and mountain on the east side of the island. Whatever it was that these early inhabitants knew and understood about the sacred nature of this island is not common knowledge today. I am still waiting to see the Carib chief and fire him with questions".
  • “With the Caribs in Dominica”, by Chuck Haren, PLENTY, Spring Bulletin, Vol. 18, No. 1—extract: “….Carib people have traditionally agreed that land not occupied or used within their collectively-held territory (approximately 3,700 acres) is open for any resident family wanting to plant crops or build a house. Over the past 17 years the population has more than doubled to 3,600+ residents, while means of earning most family incomes have remained much the same. Carib people rely heavily on the production and sale of bananas and traditional crafts for cash to meet basic needs. Young men and women starting new families stake out areas of land where they build homes and plant crops. As the cost of living and population increase many people are forced to cut forests to plant gardens wherever possible….”
This page was last updated: Wednesday, 28 June, 2006