Carmona: Learn from First Peoples

President Anthony Carmona has praised the The First Peoples as an undeniable, integral and revered component of the country’s history.

In a statement the Thursday, Carmona said the First Peoples soldier on in their quest to preserve their heritage and maintain a community way of life that is exemplary.

He said a mandate had been given to all citizens by the First Peoples to discard attitudes of intolerance, apathy, race and cultural isolationism and nurture a society of compassion, understanding and community. The President spoke of his own indigenous ancestry.

“My own paternal great grandparents were Waraos, Amerindians, the First Peoples of Orinoco Delta in Venezuela of that genre of Cocoa Payol; deep brown, weather-beaten men and women who worked tirelessly in the cocoa and coffee estates in Erin, Arima, Rancho Quemado, Moruga and Palo Seco. Part of my DNA is inextricably bound to the First Peoples and I do feel a deep sense of connection and bond to this culture; to this heritage, to this august community of men and women.”

Carmona said the rich cultures of indigenous communities existed some 7,000 years before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, boasted well-established and stratified governance, community equity and prosperity and yet were destroyed by the marauding Conquistadores.

He said past wrongs could not be altered but they could be recognised for what they were and had been.

“We can therefore engage in a progressive action that bears testimony to the traditional values and ancestral greatness of the First Peoples. We can and must learn from the First Peoples heritage and there is a generational responsibility for us to so do.

“It is my fervent hope that the First Peoples Heritage celebrations will trigger awareness, sensitivity and knowledge of the indigenous and spiritual traditions, highlight the positives and the importance of the sustainable living practices of the First Peoples and engender a revitalisation of the traditional skills associated with indigenous culture.”