Burris: Heritage festival a resounding success

DESPITE criticism in some quarters, THA Secretary of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation Tashia Burris has hailed this year’s Tobago Heritage Festival as a resounding success.

“I feel we knocked it out of the park this year,” she told reporters during African Emancipation Day celebrations at Store Bay on August 1.

For the first time in its 37-year history, the festival, titled We Come Back, was held for one month as opposed to the usual two weeks.

And while several of the perennial favourites, such as Les Coteaux, Black Rock and Pembroke, opted out of this year’s event for various reasons, others made their way back to the festival and did not disappoint.

Golden Lane, which did not participate for over 20 years, returned with its signature presentation, Courtship Codes, while Roxborough gave a re-enactment of the Belmanna Riots.

Mt St George and Mason Hall also came back to the festival with We Tambrin Story and Games We Used To Play, respectively.

Burris said, “When we talk about communities coming back, this is what the heritage used to be about, inviting all of the communities to tell their indigenous stories.

“And even though we didn’t have Pembroke and we didn’t have Les Coteaux this year, did we really miss them? That says that the heritage belongs to not just one set of communities but it belongs to the people of Tobago.”

She said the festival was executed on a meagre budget of just about $4.9 million, which, she believes, made its success even more significant.

“We really did an excellent job this year of trying to remind people of why the heritage festival was created in the first place. We were asked to do something that people thought was impossible, trying to pull off a heritage festival with a very, very small budget…. the smallest budget we have had almost in our history of the modern-day hosting of the heritage festival,” she said.

Burris said she noted all of the criticisms when the calendar of events went out.

But she knew that a dynamic team, comprising several of the island’s leading cultural exponents, was assembled to plan the festival.

It included Annette Nicholson-Alfred, Cindy-Lou Edwards, Gilbert O’Connor, Cheryl Duncan, Grace Dennis among others.

Unlike years ago, Burris said, communities were given more autonomy to manage their respective presentations and the focus was on immersive experiences.

“I saw so many visitors from Trinidad and further afield who were immersing themselves in the culture and the history and feeling as though they were a part of the celebrations. It’s more of that that we would want to promote and that is the kind of tourism that we have to push in Tobago, the more immersive, experiential, authentic, organic type tourism.”

She urged people to participate in future festivals.

“I encourage people in communities, if you don’t see yourself as part of the heritage, see yourself as part of the heritage now because the heritage festival is your festival. It is a festival for us to go in each-other’s backyards and find out so much more about each-other. There are so many things that I learned about Tobago during this year’s edition of the festival and every year I learn new things.”

Burris added, “I just want the people of Tobago to know that the culture is in great hands and that if you feel there is a place that you can contribute, then don’t be afraid to contribute, not just stand outside and criticise but how can you contribute and make the thing better. If you feel there is gap somewhere, how can you fill that gap? This belongs to us and we have to behave as though it belongs to all of us.”

Burris was especially grateful to the team at the Tobago Festivals Commission Ltd, who, she said, planned the event and had many sleepless nights.

Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) political leader Watson Duke had a different take of the festival.

He feels the event is not growing.

“The greatest attendees came from the participants and those related to the participants because they will bring their own little home crowd with them,” he said on August 2 during a news conference at the party’s headquarters, Port Mall, Scarborough.

“But apart from that, there is very little that goes on in the heritage festival to attract outsiders, meaning persons from Trinidad, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica.

“Because we see the heritage festival as a little school concert, a skit, a play and that, to me, removes the greatness of the heritage festival.”

Duke suggested the creation of a heritage village to promote and showcase the island’s heritage on an ongoing basis.

“Dedicate about 40 acres of land and create something like Walt Disney. Our history has to be preserved and captured in one place.

When you go into that place, you go back in time historically.”

He said creatives in every village should be encouraged to “take time out and practice their craft at a different level.

“So when you go I to the village, it would be like you are going back in time. I saw that to some extent in Charlotteville, Roxborough and Moriah. But we need to do it better.”

Duke said all of the participants should also be paid.

“So that when you want to see Belmanna (Roxborough), show a real white man. He is paid to do that. The actors in the washing of the dead bed (Charlotteville) must be paid.”

He suggested that the village be organised in a manner in which tourists can access tickets for activities long in advance, even during the cruise ship period.