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THE CARIBS OF TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
 

 

Ruins of Absence, Presence of Caribs: (Post) Colonial Representations of Aboriginality in Trinidad and TobagoRuins of Absence, Presence of Caribs:
(Post) Colonial Representations of Aboriginality in Trinidad and Tobago
By Maximilian C. Forte, PhD
Published by the University Press of Florida, 2005.

Click on the image for more information. This, the first book on the Santa Rosa Carib Community of Arima, Trinidad, is based on four years of ethnographic and archival research.

  

 

PAGES ON AMERINDIAN TRAIL.COM:

  • Amerindian Trail.com: From being the first populace, to now on the verge of extinction, the Amerindian cause is to lobby the Governments in the region for rightful ownership to land and address the injustices endured throughout the centuries to the present day….In recent times, tribes from the far north, (Canada) have returned to the islands to establish their roots with Amerindians along the trail, proving them to be first people to inhabit this part of the world.

  • The Santa Rosa Amerindian Community is the only organized area of Amerindian survival in Trinidad and Tobago. They were formally recognized as representative of the Indigenous Amerindians of the twin-islands state by the National Government in 1980. Linked pages on-site: Amerindian Tales, Amerindian Names, Rebellion In Trinidad, Cassava Processing, Hyarima

  • Amerindian Rebellion in Trinidad, 1699: Eighty years after the establishment of the Arenales mission, nearpresent-day San Rafael, the Amerindians revolted. What had happened? 

  • Bitter Cassava Processing: The surviving Amerindians in this area still use basically the samemethod for preparing manioc bread. 

  • Hyarima: The last great leader of this nation's indigenous people was Hyarima. He was a Nepuypo - a sub-tribe of the Carinepogoto (Carib) whose villages were established throughout northeast Trinidad.


Links From René Bermúdez Negrón’s Megasite on Trinidad Spanish and Amerindian History

  • About the Aboriginal Peoples that inhabited America: “Trinidad was physically and geographically part of prehispanic America, and was therefore part of all its process of population. There are three general theories about the arrival of human groups to the continent: immigration from Asia; from the South Pacific and the arrival to America of people of diverse origins such as southern Asia and even Europe….” 


RELATED ORGANIZATIONAL WEBSITES:

These are the websites of Trinidadian organizations which have actual working ties and/or exchange relationships with the Carib Community of Arima and that, in some way, have worked to support them or worked in conjunction with some of its members.


Newspaper Articles on the Carib Community of Trinidad,
Courtesy of
THE NATIONAL LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICE (NALIS) of Trinidad and Tobago:

IN THE SPIRIT OF THE GLI GLI
Stories by Simon Lee Sunday Guardian February 27, 2000 Page 23:
Night had already swallowed the palm thick slopes of the Carib Territory on Dominica's east coast when I reached Salybia, the main hamlet.  I plunged into the darkness, feeling my way down a track that leads to the Atlantic shore.  The muted glow of a kerosene lamp in the open window of a board house spurred me on down through the trees.  Further down I fumbled on the dim outline of another board house.  Silhouetted in the window were two old heads. One motioned me to the back of the house.  I called at the open doorway and from the interior gloom emerged Jacob Frederick.

CARIB POLITICS 500 YEARS LATER
Tracy Kim Assing Sunday Guardian January 30, 2000 Page 12:
Removed 500 years from their ancestral cultural and traditions, is the Carib community in Arima clinging to an already lost heritage?  The death of Carib Queen Justa Werges on January 16, at the age of 73, left a void in the community as it seeks to locate a new queen.  But as Tracy Kim Assing discovered when she trekked to the foothills of Arima last week, there are many other gaps in the administration of the Carib community.

CELEBRATE OUR CARIB HERITAGE
Sandra Chouthi Features Desk Express Section 2 June 29, 1998 Page 1:
The Carib people want to create their own heritage centre, but there is one minor obstacle: they have few artifacts to work with. The Santa Rosa Carib Community Centre at Paul Mitchell Street, Arima, has several items made out of coconut leaves - a shield, a hummingbird, and a catfish. There are also a wooden grater, coulev or cibukan, which the Amerindians used to squeeze cassava, and a sifter, made out of terite. None of these things, however is enough to give the groups of schoolchildren and foreign researchers and professors who visit the centre each year, the information they need about the Amerindians' presence in Trinidad.

REVISING THE ARENA AFFAIR
Trinidad Guardian November 30, 1999 Page 21:
Tomorrow marks the 300th anniversary of an event in Trinidad's history about which little is recorded and few people know - a bloody uprising against colonialism by the country's original inhabitants and the cruel reprisal by the governing authorities. It has become known as the Arena Massacre but as Guardian Features Writer LISA ALLEN-AGOSTINI reports, the descendants of the nation's first people are seeking to set the record straight and get the history recorded right.

HYARIMA
Trinidad Guardian November 30, 1999 Page 21
There is a statue in Arima commemorating Hyarima, an Amerindian cacique and the Amerindian people of Trinidad and Tobago. Below is an inscription about the Carib warrior leader.

HOW ABOUT AN AMERINDIAN HERITAGE DAY
Excerpts from a story by Al Akong Independent October 1, 1999 Page 23:
…the indigenous Caribbean people gave us the sturdy pirogue...
Today we hear no cries, no entreaties for recognition, or against oppression, political or other wide, of the Amerindians, who were the original West Indians, Trinidadians too, and were all but wiped out from the Antilles when the Europeans arrived here to run the Caribbean.

MEDINA IS NEW CARIB QUEEN, By Marlise Andrews, Trinidad Guardian, March 28, 2000, Page 6 —“Valentina Medina, of Mausica Lands, Arima, has been named Carib Queen for life, at an election held on Sunday at the Santa Rosa Carib Community Centre. Medina, 66, was among three others who were nominated as successors after Justa Werges, queen for the past 11 years, passed away in January. She was named after nominees, Julie Calderon, Mary Hernandez and Norma Stephens, withdrew their names for "various reasons." 

WAY OF THE SHAMAN, By Laura Ann Phillips, Trinidad Express, October 11, 2000 This article consists of an interview with Ricardo Cruz, the young shaman of Trinidad's Carib Community.
 
 

...FROM THE DAILY EXPRESS (TRINIDAD)... 


ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 


REFERENCE RESOURCES

  • Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Trinidad and Tobago—the People,” from the Internet Archive:excerpt—“ The original inhabitants of Trinidad were chiefly Arawak. Although there are inhabitants of the town of Arima who claim descent from Carib royalty, it is doubtful that the land was settled by Caribs. Tobago was frequently visited by American Indians, probably both Arawak and Carib, but was not settled before the arrival of Columbus….”

  • “SPIRIT OF THE AMERICAS: Recent finds have thrown new light on the Caribbean's rich Amerindian past. But lack of funds for archaeology, and new development on many islands, mean we'll continue to lose much more than we preserve. Alex de Verteuil explains,” Caribbean Beat Magazine, from the Internet Archive: Excerpt—“ Trinidad is roughly 10 km from Venezuela, and was the gateway for human migration from South America to the southern Caribbean. Amerindians crossed in their canoes over the narrow dividing strip of water and settled the island, which eventually became a jumping-off point for further voyaging up the island chain. The island's unique position made it very important in the Amerindian history of the region. Throughout Trinidad, middens have been found bearing an assortment of pottery sherds, stone axe-heads, animal bones and various bits and pieces of everyday life. These middens were the garbage dumps of the early village dwellers and, today, contain invaluable clues to the lives of the people who lived in South America and the southern Caribbean before the arrival of Columbus, 500 years ago. But despite its rich and important Amerindian heritage, there has been little attention paid to archaeology in Trinidad. In fact, there is no qualified archaeologist on the island. A government-appointed committee exists to advise the Ministry of Culture on archaeological matters, and at the university there is an Archaeology Centre, but funding to operate it is minimal. Finds are housed in a small bungalow on the campus in crumbling cardboard boxes. These have been carefully labelled and catalogued by Archie Chauharjasingh, a former civil servant, who now, as assistant at the centre, devotes much of his time to the cause of archaeology in Trinidad…”

  • “MEDICINE MAN, Herbalist Francis Morean goes back to Trinidad's Spanish and Carib past to retrieve the remedies of old. By Peter Rickwood, photography by Mark Meredith,” from Caribbean Beat Magazine, at the Internet Archive: Excerpt—“ From a passageway beside the Zeb-a-Femme, a conservatively dressed young man strides into the shop. In shirt, tie and crisp slacks, Francis Morean looks the upwardly mobile banker. In fact, he's one of Trinidad's foremost experts on herbs, owner of the shop and a contemporary link in the cultural exchange that began 500 years ago….”

  • Paria Publishing, on the History of Tobago—interesting notes on the Carib history of Tobago, for example: “….one such myth had to do with Caribs and how they maintained the notion that Tobago was the ‘earthly paradise’ of their people. In their belief system, the island contained a ‘porthole’ to heaven. When approaching the end of their lives, Caribs would leave other islands to the north and even as far away as ‘down the main’. They would turn the bows of their long canoes to beach them on some shingled shore in Tobago, journey into the mountains of the island’s central ridge and find the ’porthole to paradise’….”

  • “The Peoples of Trinidad and Tobago”, by Merle Hodge, 1975—a highly readable piece on interactions between ethnic groups in Trinidad, the role of ‘race’, and labour patterns, with some notes on the Caribs—extract: “There is even a handful of Caribs in Trinidad, when this, the indigenous has died out completely from most of the other islands….”. There are also interesting notes on the remaining Carib population in the late 1700s—“Tobago was declared a desert island. Everyone was meant to leave it. But a remnant population lingered on, made up of ex-slaves, intermingled with the black Caribs who had come from St. Vincent, and Europeans who had somehow missed their returning boats….”.

  • Trinidad and Tobago, A Brief New World History—an excellent presentation of detailed information on a wide array of aspects of the history of Trinidad and Tobago, featuring early colonial maps, photographs, and detailed references.

  • Trinidad and Tobago, History & People—a brief page of historical and demographic information on Trinidad and Tobago, provided by the Smithsonian Institution with young students in mind.

This page was last updated: Wednesday, 01 June, 2005