Since 1995, Amerindian Heritage Month has been commemorated but this year, the celebrations promise to be larger and with more content. This year’s commemoration theme is, “Sustaining our Cultural Heritage and Identity while Contributing to One Guyana”. The month commenced with a cultural event at the National Park, which attracted several thousand people. On show were representatives of each tribe of Amerindians, their languages, food, dance and other facets of their life. Hon. Pauline Sukhai, Minister of Amerindian Affairs and an Amerindian herself, remarked, “Our Indigenous People have for centuries had a deep connection with nature. This connection is rooted in our beliefs, traditional knowledge and practices. You have for centuries been custodians of our environment and its prime protectors.” Hon Gail Texeira, as acting Prime Minister, in her offering, remarked, “Indigenous people of Guyana are an example to the world on how to manage resources sustainably; this too is your cultural heritage. You have taught us how to survive off the land and how to live in harmony with nature. You have helped to keep our ecosystems intact. This too, is your heritage.”

There are a number of other events planned for the rest of the month, including culture nights, an exhibition at Castellani House and heritage sports meets. The most important event of the National Toshaos Conference, which opened towards the end of August, dovetailed into Amerindian Heritage Month.

The Conference lasted for five days, took place at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, and was attended by 200 Indigenous leaders or Toshaos. The forum allowed the Toshaos to meet and interact with Ministers of Government and Government officials and make decisions regarding the development of their communities and the livelihoods of their people. Some immediate interventions were made while plans were discussed for other longer-term interventions.which included upgrading infrastructure in interior communities, improving health care with the building of new hospitals and health centres and expanding services such as telemedicine. Investments would be made in agriculture and tourism and training would be done in these fields to include indigenous youths.

Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Charles Ramson made two notable immediate interventions. Minister Singh gave the Toshaos 1,215 tablets so that they could distribute these among their communities so that they could access the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) programmes, while Minister Ramson handed over 100 cheques of $1 million each for the upgrades of the community grounds of 100 Amerindian villages.

President Dr Irfaan Ali, in his address on the closing day of the conference, made a number of important undertakings to the Toshaos and these include: The Chairman of the National Toshaos Council (NTC, Mr Derrick John, will meet the Minister of Finance during the Budget Consultation process; the distribution of 30,000 household solar units; an additional $16 billion would be invested this year to upgrade infrastructure in hinterland communities; an aggressive programme to develop education in hinterland communities, including improvements in teachers living quarters and building of new schools; the slow delivery of WiFi to hinterland communities will be addressed; and that every young person with the basic qualifications to enter the nursing programme will be given scholarships to train as nurses and also to train in agriculture and tourism.