Filling his shoes may be a difficult task. The late Basil Rodrigues, fondly called “Uncle Basil” imprinted a rich cultural history in his contributions to the development of the Hinterland, mainly in the area of education and music. He is seen a formidable force in his own right, championing the cultures of the Indigenous people and someone who dedicatedly channelled his efforts in passing on the cultural and general knowledge of the nation’s first people.

But who would know him better than his wife Delores, who spent 55-years in his company in the Rupununi and at Moruca where he was laid to rest two years ago at the age of 81.
Uncle Basil was a recipient of the Medal of Service as well as the Golden Arrow of Achievement, awards which were bestowed on him for his efforts in advancing his cultural roots.
During a visit to the Rodrigues’ home at Kokall, Moruca recently, “Aunty Doli”, as she is fondly called by many, spoke of her late husband’s undying love for the Amerindian culture, his passion for teaching and the huge task for those of this generation to fill the vacuum which was left by him after his ascension to the Great Beyond.
She sat alongside her two daughters in the family’s living-room which is decorated with photographs of family members and one of Moruca’s most important sons.
Aunty Doli said that there are days in recent times when she would think of Uncle Basil prior to making a decision. Any decision, she chuckled. “I’ll say how he would like it, then I would pull myself out of that but many times it still happens,” she said as her two daughters smiled nearby.

She said the couple did everything together. “We were very close, we go to the shop, to the church, we worked together,” she said pointedly.
The only time they spent apart were on her trips overseas, when her sister would invite her to Canada.
“After 55 years of that, you miss somebody… to live those years with a person you got to be like a partner,” she said with a slight hint of sadness. Sadness of course is almost uncharacteristic of her spritely disposition.
But his memory lives on and he provides a guide for her and the family. She said she discovered many things he taught or told her have proved useful today.
“I find a lot things useful, God knew he would have left and I would have nobody else but the memory of him lives on,” she remarked as she stared at the many pictures of the family on the walls of their living room.
The family bore several children and great grandchildren and while some have displayed traits of Uncle Basil, it is difficult to determine who will follow in his path.
CULTURALLY GIFTED
According to Aunty Doli, her grandson Jude Etienne, who teaches at Moruca, plays the guitar well, and is culturally gifted, traits of his late grandfather.
She said Jude also plays the banjo, a small stringed instrument similar to a guitar. He played the instrument since his childhood years while in the company of his late grandfather. Jude also possesses a good command of English and he can also sing. Jude is preparing to wed his partner soon, Aunty Doli remarked.
Aunty Doli recalled a banjo, a guitar and a triangle (metal instrument) being played on the day she tied the knot with Uncle Basil at Moruca. He was a member of a Banchikilli (Spanish Arawak music) band and his friends were on hand to serenade the couple from the church to the wedding house. She said his parents, “Uncle Stanley” and “Aunt Ena” lived at the bottom of the hill, some distance away from where she currently resides. Aunt Ena was the cousin of Stephen Campbell, a revered son of Moruca and the first Guyanese Member of Parliament of Amerindian descent.
She said those days back in 1959, things were much different from today. She explained that her mother must have seen “something in me and said Thank God I gon marry she off”.
After a slight chuckle, she said that her mother had no pity on her, as she laughed at her situation at the time. The newly-wed couple lived at their respective parents’ home separately until they moved to the Rupununi where Uncle Basil had already established his name since he was teaching in Region Nine at the time.

“After marrying in December, Basil had annual leave and in April, we went up to Shea where he was teaching at the time,” Aunty Doli recalled.
“He knew the people, they knew him well, he was a good ‘paracarri’, here we call it ‘paiwari’ (Indigenous beverage) up there is paracarri,” she explained. She said Uncle Basil would socialise but she found herself a stranger in strange lands, miles away from home.
“Imagine, I got to now fall in and being pregnant and with bad feelings,” she said with an amused smile followed by a clap.
LIFE AT MORUCA
After spending 25 years in the Rupununi, the couple decided to move back to Santa Rosa. That was in 1992. They were well-established at Aishalton at the time, Aunty Doli said. She noted that Uncle Basil thought hard about returning to his homeland.
“Aishalton was home for him with all the scenery and so but his health was beginning to go a bit and we thought we needed to be closer to health care,” she recounted.
On their return to Moruca in 1992, a few things needed to be fixed.
“We notice our health service was not good. We hadn’t a doctor and he and I started working on it,” she said. In 1992, Uncle Basil started teaching at the primary school and where the family house stands today, was filled with bushes.
“There were many vines,” she said.
They built a small house on their return. “A little trooile top home, well at least we had a shelter,” she added with a little smile.
“Not the two-story building I imagined but as usual, we said let us make use with what we have,” she said with a contented stare.
At the time, her eldest daughter had moved to Boa Vista in Brazil while her other daughter and her grandson moved to Moruca with her and Uncle Basil.
The couple started conversations with the community and later formed a health committee after they recognised that Moruca was not only the two communities of Kumaka and San Jose but included many far flung areas.
She said Uncle Basil had a “good command of how to run things and people liked how he spoke not long and drawn out but he get things done”.
As the years rolled by, she said he wanted to get deeper into culture and he found the children of Moruca were shy and had little pride in their tradition.
“So what he used to do heritage time, he asked me to make a lap, head dress and so and he would go out,” she said, noting the people thought it funny. He was also centrally involved in church activities.
Some 200 years ago, on St John’s Day which is celebrated on June 24 annually, the first Roman Catholic priest arrived at Moruca. The area’s very first families included the Atkinsons, the Aguilars, the Torres’, Rodrigues, among others and they were all Roman Catholics. The families wanted a church established at Moruca and later, Father Haynes moved to the area where the church mission was built.
“They built a little shed and Father Haynes arrived on that day,” Aunty Doli schooled. That evening lighted torches in the form of bamboos were placed along the sides of the water near the community of Hobo were the priest was welcomed.
The scene is re-enacted annually and before Uncle Basil passed-away, he was involved in the planning process until his health deteriorated. The scene was nevertheless re-enacted and his memory is etched in the celebrations which Aunty Doli noted, established a point in Moruca’s rich history.
A question pose to residents on Uncle Basil’s contribution to the community points to one thing; his involvement in the fostering of the indigenous culture. As for Aunty Doli, she continues to celebrate his work and his contribution to the development of Moruca.
Her craft shop is revered in that regard, since various forms of Amerindian artifacts are on sale to anyone who wishes to celebrate the culture and history of the nation’s first people, a feat Uncle Basil preached until he left for the Great Beyond.