-in honour of Stephen Campbell, Guyana’s first Indigenous parliamentarian

A PARTNERSHIP for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Member of Parliament (MP), Vincent Henry has called for September 10 to be declared a national holiday in tribute to the late Stephen Campbell.

Campbell is the first Indigenous person in Guyana’s history to become a parliamentarian. Last week, during the budget debate, Henry said that in honour of the country’s First Peoples and the elevation of Parliament over the years, a day should be set aside to celebrate Campbell’s strides.

“As a recognition of the first people who settled and remained in Guyana, I ask that we remember the contributions made by the Honourable Stephen Campbell, the first indigenous person who became a parliamentarian. We request that the day he entered Parliament, the 10th of September, be declared a national holiday,” Henry said.

The call comes a little over a year after former President David Granger commissioned the Stephen Campbell House located at Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Bourda, Georgetown. A strong believer in empowerment and self-sufficiency, Campbell fought vigorously during his parliamentary days for educational opportunities and land rights for the Indigenous Peoples.

During the colonial days, the then rulers allowed Amerindians to live their life in ‘reservations’, according to their traditions and practices, subject to certain limitations.

However, Amerindians at that time had no formal title of ownership or established legal rights to the lands which they used or where they lived. Talks regarding the then British Guiana becoming an independent country led to fear amongst the Amerindians.

The people feared that after the country gained independence, whatever rights they enjoyed would have been trampled upon and ignored, and the lands on which they lived for years would have been expropriated.
In 1962, Campbell travelled to London to present a petition, and lobby the British government for recognition of Amerindian land rights. On that first visit to London, Campbell took with him a petition, which was written on a long scroll and signed by dozens of Indigenous leaders of the day.

He presented it to the British Secretary of State, Duncan Sandys, following a one-hour- long private meeting. Sadly, on May 12, 1966, two weeks before British Guiana gained its independence, Campbell passed away while receiving treatment in Canada, where he was later laid to rest.

The work that he did during his last days ensured that Indigenous Peoples have legal ownership of land and rights, and occupancies following Guyana’s independence on May 26, 1966. These rights were embodied in the independence provisions.