THE Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs once again had the crowd going wild as they walked away with most of the awards at this year’s Mashramani prize-giving exercise at the National Cultural Centre on Friday evening.
The ministry won in various categories, such as the medium-size band prizes and king and queen categories.

The progamme included musical renditions from the Guyana Police Force and the GBTI Buxton Steel Orchestra, while members of the National School of Dance in their beautiful array of colours danced gracefully to this accompaniment.
Present at this year’s event was Minister of Social Cohesion, Dr. George Norton; Director of Culture, Ms. Tamika Boatswain, the awardees and other special invitees. Ms. Boatswain expressed her sincere thanks to all who gave their support to this year’s event and highlighted the efforts made by the companies who helped to make the event a success.

She also made reference to the success of this year’s first-ever “Mash Crank-Up.” There was a total of six “Mash Crank-Ups” that were done to set the stage for “Mash” 2019.
Officials of the Ministry of Social Cohesion presented the awards to winners of the different categories and competitions held this year. Trophies were presented to winners of the Junior Calypso Competition, and the schools regional and national competitions, among other individual and collective groups. Both Jamal Stuart and Jovinski Thorne had the audience moving to their rhythms as they performed their winning pieces from the Calypso and Soca Monarch Competitions, respectively.

In the feature address, the minister reflected on the continuous progress Mashramani has made in recent years and hopes for the support of many in the coming years. According to the minister, the aim of Mashramani is to foster social cohesiveness and despite the competitions, at the end of the day Guyanese are a family celebrating after hard work.
Trevor Alfred won the People’s Choice award and won a great deal of trophies along with $250,000. The presentation also included winners from various school competitions such as art, dance, poetry and craft. South Ruimveldt, North Georgetown, St Joseph High, Bishop’s High and Smyth Street Nursery were among the many who received trophies and other prizes.