'Dormant’ communities urged: Be part of Tobago Heritage Festival

THA Secretary of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation Tashia Burris is appealing to “dormant” communities across Tobago to come forward and be part of the Tobago Heritage Festival.

Burris spoke during the prize giving for the 2024 festival as the winners in the various categories were recognised during a ceremony at the Shaw Park Complex on November 1.

She said it is time for communities across the island to come forward and tell their stories.

She said the prize giving needed to be done publicly, recognising those who not only participated in the 2024 festival but recognising people who put their best feet forward and their talent on display.

She believes the festival needs to go back to the communities.

“The communities need to take ownership of the heritage festival product.

“So it’s not just about waiting on the festival’s commission to plan and execute and do something. As soon as one edition is finished, the planning should immediately start for the next year.”

She said there must be conversations about the stories to be told, saying everyone knows about the villages that show up every year as she pointed out the returners, Golden Lane and Roxborough.

“What that says to us is that there are stories across the Tobago space that are yet to be told. So that although we love the Les Coteaux, we love the Pembroke and we love all of the other ones who are usually showing up every year; we have stories like the tambrin story in Mt St George, another excellent production, and that was led by young people – what that says to us is that we have to do some work in ensuring that the people who are looking at this product from the outside get an idea of how rich the heritage and culture are, because every year we are telling new stories.”

She urged community groups, along with regular participants, to visit other communities.

“Encourage them to get together, find the stories that need to be told, help each other tell those stories because the only way for the heritage festival to survive is if we keep telling our stories.”

She said there is a young generation coming up that does not know much about where they came from.

“We in this room are the ones who have to sit with them and remind them of the way things used to be, the games we used to play, the stories that we used to hear growing up.

“These are the things we have to encourage because our young people, especially in this time where there are so many distractions in the world that they are growing up in, they have to have a very solid sense of self.

“They have to have a very solid sense of who am I as a Tobagonian, and the only way we can do that, as Tobagonians, is to tell the stories, tell each other stories, help each other tell the stories, and never forget where we have come from and continue to encourage young people to be discoverers of the truth, discoverers of their history, discoverers of their culture and their heritage.”

She said she is looking forward to another stellar staging of the event in 2025.