The beautiful ancient district

By Shaniya Harding

THE village of Batavia was founded and the name has been said to mean ‘The ancient district’. At the time, the village was a small group of farmers, hunters and fishermen. Today, the village of Batavia is 600 people strong with more than 130 households.
This little village located along the Cuyuni River was selected as this year’s Heritage Village as part of the 2023 Amerindian Heritage Month celebrations. Batavia runs alongside both banks of the Cuyuni River, and for the people of this little community, boats are a must for life on the river.

Donna Boyal is Batavia’s Deputy Toshao and as a deputy, teacher and villager, he deeply understands the village of Batavia. Donna grew up in Batavia and she recounted what life as a child in Batavia was like. “As a child growing up, I enjoyed coming to school because we used to paddle in our canoe to get to school. I live on the right bank of the Cuyuni River, and growing up, there were ten of us in the family. And there were only two girls. I was the baby, the favourite, because my father passed away a very long time ago when I was like three years old. And growing up without a father was very hard as a child. But my mother always tried her best for me,” the Toshao recalled.

Batavia village stretches for several miles along both banks of the Cuyuni River. The people of Batavia use the river the same way people elsewhere use roads. With small speedboats constantly traversing the water, school boats bringing home children and neighbours calling to each other from bank to bank, the village of Batavia is truly captivating.

Batavia is made of many different areas, with the infamous Arian Island being the focal point of most of the community’s activities and where heritage month activities will be held this month. As Donna explained the village’s many areas, she stated, “From the right bank of the Cuyuni River, we have a place named Greenfield. Then we have the Bamboo landing. Then we have the tiger bay and the Pine Tree landing. We have the Flat Rock area and going up, we have the Upper Kamaira, and then the lower Kamaira. Coming down to the left bank of the Cuyuni River, we have the Sandhill area.”

Heritage in the charming little village of Batavia has always been an occasion the people look forward to. So, when the news that they were chosen was delivered, all works and preparation by villagers commenced almost immediately. Donna stated that “The Arian Island is the proposed sight for the heritage celebrations on the 17th. When I heard the news that we were selected as the national heritage village I was happy. And my people were so excited. My residents will prepare our traditional drinks. Because we always have the best Paiwari, cassiri and beltiri, and when people come, they always enjoy our local drinks and food,” she said.

Batavia has a wide array of their own schools, centres and institutions. Batavia has an ICT hub building, a market building, and the women’s cross centre, where many of the indigenous crafts are still handmade by the women and girls of the village. The village still has a very strong sense of tradition, culture and community. As Donna explained, most of the economic activities of the village are centred around farming, hunting, fishing and logging. Many of the village’s young women have jobs in the field of nursing or teaching.

As a teacher in the past, Donna is very passionate about the education of her people. She has been deputy Toshao of Batavia for a little over two years now, and she is working towards bettering the education of the children in her community. “My responsibilities are concerning education and tourism. For education, my role is to make sure the children come to school regularly, mostly based on attendance.”

The responsibility of education in Batavia is a big one, as the community has a high dropout rate. Many of the village youths leave school before completion and, more often than not, don’t further their education. This results in one of the village’s biggest issues currently is unemployment. As Donna explained, “The issues we have are with the dropout from school. Many children aren’t finishing school. We want more people to learn new skills, especially more women, because a lot of them are unemployed. We really want them to learn a skill to help themselves and help their families.”

The community is working towards resolving this problem, however, by trying to get more training in the village, particularly for women and girls. The community is in high anticipation for the upcoming heritage celebrations. They are planning an occasion that will allow visitors to indulge in their beautiful culture and traditions, with everything from speedboat races to arts and crafts. And Donna is giving the rest of Guyana a special invite, as she stated, “I am inviting the people of Guyana; you are welcome to our heritage celebrations of September 17. When you come, you will experience for yourself what we have to offer here in Batavia.”