TOBAGO HERITAGE ON SHOW

KINNESHA GEORGE-HARRY

“The Miss Tobago Heritage Personality competition is where the traditional merges with the contemporary and offers us a capsule of the Tobago woman.”

So says THA Assistant Secretary of Tourism, Culture Transportation Shomari Hector, as he addressed the audience in the staging of the first in a four-episode series of the annual Miss Tobago Heritage Festival personality competition, now in its 33rd year.

Owing to the covid19 restrictions in effect, the Tobago Festival’s Commission, chaired by Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-Angus, decided to pre-record the 2020 competition, themed Tracing Legacies, which will be aired as a four-part series. The first was aired on Saturday.

The episode ran for 45 minutes and culminated with Keisha Davidson and 2009 Miss Heritage Personality Kimmi Potts welcoming the ten queens to the stage. The production was viewed over 4,200 times on the Tobago Festivals Facebook page with over 200 comments.

The ten queens are Aleah Holder of Roxborough, Maiah Craig-Charles of Carnbee/Mt Pleasant, Davina Nelson of Les Coteaux, Khandelle Smith of Rhythmic Vibrations, Alliyah Sandy of Scarborough/ De Kulture Klub Ensemble, Shaquan Alleyne of Mt St George Police Youth Club, Kezia Sandy of Mt Grace, Jeri-Ann Sterling of Argyle, Karicia Morrison of Delecia’s Dance Agency and Tiffany Quashie-Williams of Mason Hall Village Council Folk Performers.

The production included five groups of five people and began in the village of Pembroke with the Salaka Feast, using the concept of moving through the different villages to showcase the legacy of the queens.

Artistic director Shanareah Taylor told Newsday: “We tried to take the audience through Tobago’s history and the heritage and the culture in a way that was also entertaining. So, we started and did the religious aspects of the show in the Salaka yard, which was appropriate because it was Pembroke, then we moved to Belle Garden which is the belle yard to bring greetings.”

The Salaka Feast featured prayers, African rituals and dancing paying homage to the ancestors. It brought alive the island's heritage in a packaged production made necessary owing to covid19 restrictions.

According to Hector, through this competition the public can gain more insight into the many experiences that have shaped a woman’s world. He noted that Miss Tobago Heritage Personality is not a typical competition but more so, it is an islandwide search for a woman who represents much more.

He said, “What truly sets this event apart is its more embracing philosophy, it truly respects that beauty should not be pegged as just one thing. That women should be able to show up exactly as they are and feel genuinely seen and celebrated in the process. So inclusivity is an extremely important element in this competition, it is one that Miss Tobago Heritage Personality has maintained and observed every year and requires praises for pushing the very boundaries.”

According to Hector, the competition is a journey focusing on the young women who participate each year.

“Not just a one-night affair. It has developmental workshops, forming many of its precursor events and therefore this is an avenue where we are able to develop Tobago’s youths into well rounded individuals,” he said.

Chairman of the programming and management committee at the Tobago Festivals Commission Ltd, Cindy-Lou Edwards said as the intelligence and hard work of the young women are being celebrated, it is important to note that it has been done differently this year as it is about growth, development and cultural and community connectivity.

The ten contestants, she said,, showcased a new challenge this year: a village project documenting a selected feature of their communities using video, audio, literature, performers or entertainers to tell its story, the embodiment of the event themed Tracing Legacies.

“The format of how this comes to you today is a clear demonstration of how quickly Tobago is adapting to the changing circumstances of the world. Hopefully, through the development and capacity training offered in the preparation for this event, we would have assisted the contestants for a future that is unpredictable, as it is full of opportunities,” she said.

The second episode will be aired on September 5 and will be shown on the Facebook pages of Tobago Channel 5, TTT and the Tobago Festivals Commission.