Reviving the Arwawak language in St Cuthbert’s Mission

There are few places in Guyana where one is paid to learn, and so imagine receiving an incentive for educating yourself. All that is needed is one’s attendance and of course, continuous performance.This is the case for residents of St Cuthbert’s Mission who are learning the Arawak language.

St Cuthbert’s Mission, is an Amerindian community located some 12 miles off the Linden/Soesdyke highway. The village has a rich history of preserving its cultural heritage, and Toshao Lenox Shuman wants that to continue.
St Cuthbert’s Mission is noted for its Arawak language preservation and one of the key individuals behind the language’s existence in the community is Leyland Clenkian, a former educator with years of teaching experience in the community.
Clenkian told this newspaper, during a recent interview, that he has been teaching the language at his home for almost 10 years. He holds class every Saturday morning at 10 am. And one of the more special aspects of the classes is the $1000 incentive which is given to students at the end of each class.
He said that the class attracts mainly younger persons , noting that the village population is in the vicinity of 1500, and a significant percentage can speak the language; some more fluent than others.
He said the language is taught at three levels; the basic level includes greetings, names of places and objects among other fundamentals. The next stage, the intermediate level, involves the use of more sentences and grammar, as well as verbs. In the final stage, called the “Advanced Level “, the student is expected to be a bit more fluent. At the moment, Clenkian teaches 10 students and he expects this group to continue onward until the advance level. “We are encouraging them to continue “, he said.
But how is the money raised for paying the students?
The village benefits annually from the Robinson Trust Fund, a London- based fund created by former residents of the community and other partners. ”It is a kind of monetary fund which is managed by solicitors in England and it is administered by them “, Clenkian said. He said the group would disburse funds based on decisions made at their bi-annual meetings. Guyanese –born writer and actress, Pauline Melville, is the fund’s trustee.
Clenkian said that the classes are held as long as the life of the funds is afloat. He said that there are other programmes , including a dancing and craft programme in the community which also benefits from the fund.
Speaking about himself, Clenkian, who is a former soldier, said that he learnt the Arawak language through his forefathers.
He said his grandfather was the one who taught him a lot about the language as he recounted the times they spent conversing in Arawak. In addition, Clenkian said that he was also assisted through the teaching profession which he entered in 19 64. He said at the time, he moved to St Francis Mission, known today as Moraikobai , in Region Five (5). After teaching there, he joined the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and after serving the military for six years, he moved back to his community around 1973.
“I came home because they needed my services,” he said. Over a period spanning some 20 years, he said he became known as the village’s Common Entrance teacher, an area which he still specializes in today.
“I just came back from Georgetown and I have a class right now, they (the students) are waiting on me,” he said, as the 3 p.m. hour approached during the interview.
Clenkian stressed that the survival of any language lies in its fluency and its continuity. “We the older folks are very fluent in our language and I’m very fluent also because I moved to other places and spoke Arawak instead of English “, he added.