In August every year, World Indigenous Peoples’ Day is commemorated worldwide under the auspices of the United Nations and its theme this year is “Protecting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact.” World Indigenous Peoples’ Day promotes and advocates the achievement of the comprehensive ideal for Indigenous Peoples wherever they live, which would obviously not uniformly apply to every country.
For example, this year’s isolation and initial-contact theme would be relevant to the Andaman Islands, but not Guyana. Accordingly, the ideal’s achievement level differs from country to country, and Guyana stands out as the country with the status nearest to the ideal. Despite its extraordinary achievement, Guyana still enthusiastically commemorates World Indigenous Peoples’ Day yearly. Guyana’s achievement will unfold as we now consider Amerindian Heritage Month.

In 1995, Dr Cheddi Jagan, who had returned as President of Guyana in 1992 after being kept out of office for 28 years,designated September as Amerindian Heritage Month to promote the interests of that community, showcase its culture, and enhance its image.
We will consider Amerindian Heritage Month from three standpoints: first, the cultural heritage; second, the activities being made to bring justice to the Amerindian community; and the efforts to have Amerindians enjoy the same social amenities and economic opportunities which the people of Georgetown and the developed coastal regions enjoy; and third, the preservation and development of the Amerindian languages.
The Amerindian peoples have always had a deep connection with nature and have always been custodians of the environment and ecology. They have provided an example and guide to the rest of the nation on managing resources sustainably and surviving off the land while remaining in harmony with nature. This understanding of ecology and what is now known as “Climate Change” has been part of Amerindian culture for hundreds of years before those concepts were discovered by Western culture and given scientific analyses and terminologies. It is probably a deep understanding of the Guyanese psyche derived from our Amerindian heritage, which manifests itself in Guyana’s commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and maintaining Guyana as a net carbon sink.

There are other Amerindian contributions to Guyanese life as in cuisines such as pepperpot, cassava bread and other ground-provision dishes; the Amerindian style of houses with the sleeping area elevated as a protection against dangerous insects and animals; and several useful artefacts such as plaited hand fans, earthenware utensils of various types, arrows to spear fish, since nets are not known or not available and hammocks. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, when people from the coastal regions, such as individual miners and porknockers went into the interior, they adopted the Amerindian mode of life and culture to survive.

For generations, Amerindian people were kept isolated and regarded as lesser than other Guyanese, and without knowing why, their culture was despised and regarded as inferior by the dominant Western culture in its Euro-Creole form. Indian culture was also once subjected to identical prejudice, and this has caused Indians to have empathy with the plight of Amerindians. Over the last three decades, however, Amerindians have been slowly raising their status through their own efforts, mainly by being inducted into professions such as nursing, teaching and local politics, and the other Guyanese communities have been welcoming and supportive of the development of “the First People.”

This process has quickened over the last decade. The national road systems have been linking the hinterland areas to the coast and to Brazil; schools and educational facilities primarily in the technical fields have been introduced or upgraded in the Amerindian villages; more Amerindians are being trained as medics, nurses and doctors and four high-grade hospitals are being constructed in the regions with full Amerindian access; billions of dollars derived from the Carbon Credit revenues, Presidential Grants, Amerindian Development Fund and ministerial programmes across several ministries have been deployed to the Amerindian villages for them to execute hundreds of developmental projects. Electricity has been made available to more than 30,000 households by the supply of solar panels; with electricity availability, the Internet has become available and the people of the hinterland have taken to it with the same alacrity as their compatriots on the coast. Most importantly, Amerindian communities have been awarded hundreds of square miles of land, which the communities occupy with ownership not only for the topsoil, but also the minerals in such land. In fact, 15% of Guyana’s land area has been awarded to the various Amerindian tribal communities. Amerindians are represented in national politics at the higher levels, and several Amerindian Ministers of Government have been there. In all of this, Guyana stands out in the world as it treats its Indigenous people very closely to the ideal.
There is one area of Amerindian development that Guyana has found very challenging, and that is the use and preservation of the Amerindian languages. Sporadic attempts have been made over the years by the Amrindian Department of the University of Guyana and one or two researchers funded by US foundations to compile dictionaries and even grammars of one or two of seven Amerindian languages. However, no sustained work was ever been done, largely because of a lack of funding. An effort should be made to preserve each of the seven languages and a lingua franca should be identified and developed. In this process, the University of Guyana’s role is vital and if the state accords adequate funding, this language project would be successful.