Lucia Cabrera Jones wins 2025 Colin Robinson Hard Head Award

Women’s empowerment activist Lucia Cabrera Jones was judged the winner of the fifth annual Colin Robinson Hard Head Award at a ceremony on December 6 at ThinkArtWorkStudio, Port of Spain.

Cabrera Jones, 52, the founder and CEO of Women Owned Media and Education Network (Women) and a survivor of domestic violence, was recognised for her work in under-resourced communities, coupled with her use of art, creativity, non-traditional training and storytelling as healing, a release said.

The awards are organised by Caiso: Sex and Gender Justice in memory of its late co-founder and director of imagination, Colin Robinson, who died after a short battle with cancer in 2022.

Community archivist and cultural heritage activist Avah Atherton, climate justice advocate and workers’ rights activist Princess Avianne Charles; feminist activist Jade Trim and disability rights activist and executive officer of the Blind Welfare Association Kenneth Suratt were the other finalists.

Atherton and Suratt were singled out for honourable mention by the judges, the release said.

It added that this year’s call for nominations got ten nominations across a broad range of human rights and social justice work including cultural activism, health policy and advocacy, LGBTQ+ rights, social media activism, and visual and performing arts-based activism.

Nominations were open from October 25-November 12.

The organisation’s award committee shortlisted five finalists for adjudication and the judges submitted their decision on December 2.

Human rights advocate and political affairs professional André Blackburn, temporary Independent Senator and gender and development specialist Dr Deborah McFee and Casio director Omar Mohammed formed the judging panel.

In delivering the judges’ citation, Blackburn and McFee applauded the rich, diverse mapping of the ways in which civil society actors continue to carve out programming and project spaces, always remaining relevant and intrinsic to Trinidaian people.

They said Atherton’s” hard-headedness” stemmed from her commitment to reviving the ancestral tradition of the griot, and her belief that memory itself was activism, and that ordinary people can build extraordinary things with the right tools.

Surrat was singled out for his hard-headedness in purpose, his broad commitment to a brand of activism that is not about anger, but about action, and his capacity to see opportunity when others only see limitations, the release said.

“Ultimately, it was Lucia Cabrera Jones’ ‘unwavering determination to create change even when resources are scarce, systems are resistant and the odds even’ that won over the judges, who noted a hard-headedness that ‘has grown into a mission to create access, equity and healing and positive transformation for local and migrant women and girls,’” the release said.