THE Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs has engaged children from several schools in an attempt to eradicate the plethora of misconceptions of the indigenous culture still pervasive among many.

Representative from the Ministry, Ovid Williams, explained to the Guyana Chronicle, “These lectures are just to showcase our culture and to clear misconceptions about our culture and heritage.”

These lectures, conducted in schools, started some three years ago according to Williams. He said the ministry found that tapping into the younger demographic would be a good way to let young people “know about the culture.”

“It starts with the young people,” Williams posited, “There are lots of misconceptions about the indigenous people, so we target some schools.”

And while this has been successfully ongoing for the few years, this year the ministry decided to employ a different tactic to get schools involved. This year, the ministry did not approach the schools as per the norm. Instead, an ‘open letter’ was issued to all schools and the schools desirous of having the lectures indicated their interest, Ovid shared. And he said, “The response has been magnificent.”

A few of the schools visited include the Genesis Primary School in Canal Number One; the Plaisance Secondary; The Valmiki Vidyalaya Primary School; and the Business School, among others.

The Guyana Chronicle accompanied Williams to one of the lectures — at the Genesis Primary School — and it was quite evident that Williams’ talk of these misconceptions was no fallacy.

The children were brimming with enthusiasm to learn much more about the heritage and culture of Guyana’s first peoples and paid keen attention to every word uttered by Ovid. They were simply overjoyed when he brought out indigenous artifacts and craft to show them.

As enthusiastic as they were, they also had many questions which were structured around misconceptions they might have had. They asked if Indigenous peoples had access to utilities and modern technologies, and they questioned their simplistic dress and lifestyle.

Nevertheless, Williams was able to address each question and commented that the engagement has been overwhelming, not only at Genesis, but at every school they visited.

“The response has been great [and] encouraging,” he further stated.

The month of September is designated as Indigenous Heritage Month. This year, it is being observed under the theme “Proud of our Indigenous identity, celebrating in Unity.”