Guyana has a diverse and rich culture, one that was heavily influenced by past colonial masters during the slave and indentureship periods.
Many have come and added a great deal to our country’s history. This ranges from our Guyanese Creolese language, spoken differently in every part of Guyana, brought to us by our ancestors, or the architectural designs, some of which still exist in some parts of rural and central Guyana.
Our culture is still being influenced today, not by colonials, but by the trends set in other places. We are yet to completely own our cultural heritage and proud of it, the way we push for and support others.

Many men like Michael Khan, also known as ‘Old Man Pappy’, and the late Allan Fenty have spent many years trying to preserve our culture and pass on the traditions from many years ago to the youth of today.
Folklore stories such as the story of Old Kai, Kanaima, the story of El Dorado, the Massacooraman, bush dai-dai, and the moon-gazer among others could be lost if not treasured and told.
Another local folklorist was the late Wordsworth McAndrew, who was also a poet, radio broadcaster, and a creative artist who once said, “In my view, the folklore of a people is at the root of their being, and to cast it aside is to set oneself adrift culturally -an act which one performs at one’s peril.”

Today, we have Dion Glasgow- Douglas, a dynamic and phenomenal woman who, against all, is trying to preserve our culture through her page, ‘AWE Story Gat Melody’ on Facebook.
She is pushing to preserve our culture and strives to highlight the Guyanese culture in its entirety by ensuring that it is as embraced as anything else. She actively loves Guyanese folklore and Guyanese proverbs and shares these sayings on her page.

In an interview with this publication, she said that because she lives between the United States and Guyana, she has noticed that when she returned to Guyana, there were certain threads of realities faced by Guyanese. She said, “For instance, people that send barrel will know that when the barrel arrives in Guyana, there’s a fight over the barrel. Or sometimes when you send money for your relatives, remittance, they would still behave as if you haven’t done anything, or people might be ungrateful.”

Douglas said that she had been thinking about these stories and the fact that there weren’t any storytellers and people were not telling our story. “Especially our stories in Creolese, and it really weighed on my heart. And I truly believed that when something weighs on your spirit, you have to pick up the mantle and do that work,” she said.
She said further that she would love to work along with government agencies to preserve these national treasures. “I really want to have a cultural space where our stories can be told. I think that is important because the thing with our stories, they are not polarizing. They do not cause us to go on one side or the other side. Your experience is my experience,” she said.
Douglas stated that it is not a case where we can argue about the reality of our experiences. She said that politics and religion are topics we heavily debate, but with our cultural experiences, there is not much to argue about.

She highlighted that her aim is for us (Guyanese) to recognize who we are. She stated that as an Afro-Guyanese, she knows that Creolese was born in the plantations where her ancestors were enslaved and could not speak their native tongue.
“They took a little bit from the English they heard, their native languages; then the East Indians came and they add to it,” She shared, adding that Creolese is rooted in the Afro-Guyanese experience. She expressed that while she does not wish for a world where everyone is speaking Creolese, she wishes for a world where everyone can understand that it is okay to speak standard English, but the need to have the ability to codeswitch to this language, which lives in us.

She describes it as a reservoir of our culture and all of our proverbs and proverbs. Douglas noted that she just wanted Creolese to have a seat at the table with Standard English. She cautioned that she is not always telling persons to speak that way but to embrace Creolese as a language on its own.
Additionally, Douglas said she usually speaks ‘basilect creole’, the lowest form. This is done because it is the one that is closest to the ones spoken by her ancestors.

Furthermore, Douglas hosts live storytelling events, when she is here. The activities she plans for these events include storytelling of folklore stories such as the most popular, Anansi; they also make toys using the most basic household items (corks, newspapers just to list a few). She said she has done these at events before where she called it, “When all we had was paper”. From there, she would guide them on what the newspaper was used for (wallpapers, curlers, shelf paper, used it to clean lampshades and windows).

In closing, she said, “One kiss, nah break jawbone.” She explained that in life, rain and sunshine will come. Speaking in metaphors, she said that sometimes the water from our rain clouds will get so high that it floods your life, and you will think that everything is finished. She explained, “Don’t let one experience. One single experience colours the way you see the world.” She encouraged people to get up, rub their jawbone and keep moving. “We came from people who refused to give up. When they couldn’t speak their own language, they made a language. They made Creolese,” she said.
Persons interested in knowing more about Dion’s work can visit AWE Story Gat Melody on Facebook, and look out for her videos and upcoming live events.