THE Ministry of Natural Resources is “ready fuh de road” come February 23 when the Mashramani float parade takes centre stage down the streets of Georgetown.The Ministry on Wednesday launched its ‘Mash Band’ in the compound of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), and no one seems more excited about the festivities than Minister within the Ministry, Ms Simona Broomes, who was there on behalf of the subject Minister, Mr Raphael Trotman.
Sporting a painting of the National Flag on her face, a jovial Minister Broomes led Wednesday’s mini-fete as her ministry showcased a few pieces from its band to sounds of blaring soca music.
“The Ministry of Natural Resources wants to say to all Guyana, ‘Look forward for it! We coming down the road!” she proclaimed.
The ministry will be entering in the Medium/Full Costume and Semi-Costume categories.
Minister Broomes boasted that the band will be looking to cater for 160 patrons, and encouraged employees to take part and grab their costumes early.
ABSOLUTELY FREE
Members of the public desirous of doing so can also be a part of the ministry’s procession, and it’s all absolutely free of cost.
Persons need only go in and register to get one of the costumes; there’ll be several to choose from.
The band, which is being coordinated by award-winning costume designer Neilson Nurse, has taken its theme from the Ministry’s own Mashramani sub-theme, “Maintaining and promoting rehabilitation of our forest resources towards a ‘green’ economy”.
Neilson also took guests on a tour of the ‘Mash Camp’, where he is designing all of these exciting costumes.
The main female costume will be the “Queen” costume, while the main male costume will feature the “Cock of the Rock”.
Explaining the concept behind the costumes, Nurse said:
“With the ‘Queen’, we’re playing with the whole idea of the story of ‘In the heart of a seed’. So, she actually bursts open, and you get a new plant within.

POLLINATION
“Along the route, her costume continues to expand (because we’re using the concept of pollination) with the butterfly and wind which assists with that.
“With the “Cock of the Rock”, we wanted to use something unique to Guyana. Most people would prefer the Canje Pheasant, but to my mind, that is overdone; so we wanted to bring out another majestic bird, and the Cock of the Rock is one of those birds.”
Not yet done, he also talked a bit about the Float. For the design of this, Neilson combined several of the industries that come under the ministry’s purview.
“For the Float, we’re looking at the whole forest and reforestation,” he said. “It’s a float with revellers; you will see them mining, and if you follow the storyline, the water from the mines flows into the river, which introduces the offshore mining and so on.
“It’s showing the current industry leading into the future industry.”