COMMENTARY: A visit to the Kalinago Territory

During a short family visit to Dominica three years ago, we squeezed some time to visit family in Castle Bruce. We then headed north to the neighboring Kalinago territory- the eight (8) hamlets in the north-east totaling an area of land mass about 3,700 acres.

The objectives of our visit to the Territory were primarily because we wanted our two daughters to experience and explore the beauty, colour, humanity and humility of the Kalinago culture and its people. In so doing, they will learn to respect and view them as a progressive and hardworking people who care about their history, community, families and Dominica. We wanted them to view them not with the distorted ‘otherness’ narrative lens that has unfortunately historically existed for some time.

Our trip was enjoyable, fun and educational. The girls not only got a deeper appreciation for the Kalinago’s Native Indian colourful culture, its immense beauty and their contribution to our island’s diversity and economic development, but also its painful history. We had already started that education process when they could barely walk. Whenever we visited the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC where we reside, we always stopped by the small exhibit which depicts the Kalinago people, their culture and customs.

My dad who was born and raised at the edge of the territory in the red dirt of Jalousie, Castle Bruce, witnessed the disrespect and ridicule that the Kalinago people faced by the government and rest of the country not too long ago.Even today there is still some lingering ‘otherness’ attitude towards the Kalinago in some powerful business, socio-economic and political quarters. It can be argued that they haven’t been given a fair deal in Dominica. One poignant example is it is still felt that their votes are taken for granted.

In 1903, the British Crown bestowed the eight hamlets to Dominican’s indigenous people and the name Carib Reserve became the official title of the Territory. The purpose was to recognize the community as a distinct group, both culturally and racially. The Kalinago (formerly called the Caribs) lived on the most fertile lands all over the island and were pushed out to the more barren lands to the north-eastern flank of Dominica where they finally settled by the European colonists. In 1674 there was a massacre of our first nation people by British troops on the west coast. The coastal village where this atrocity occurred just a few miles from the capital city of Roseau is named ‘Massacre’.

In 1930, the colonial Governor of Dominica sent the Royal Navy’ s Frigate, HMS Delhi to Salybia’s coast, (the territory’s administrative center and the largest of the eight hamlets) after a confrontation between police and Indians over the smuggling of rum and tobacco to Marie Galante and Martinique. Two Indians were killed and five were injured after police fired into a crowd.

Later Marines from the Delhi placed Salybia on lockdown after it shelled its coast with its big guns. Kalinago Chief Jolly John was detained and the title and position of Chief was eliminated. The incident became known as the Carib War. In 1953, the position of Chief was restored and the Kalinago Council was created. Today the Kalinagos are more assertive, educating their people, rewriting and narrating their history, planning and preparing their young onesfor promising futures.

During our visit to Indian country, we stopped in all the eight hamlets of the territory and interacted with residents and gave hitch hikers rides on our rented pick up jeep as they traversed one end of the territory to the other.

We stopped at the school in Sineku and observed the students and teachers. This was of most interest to me because the Headmistress of the Sineku School –one of the hamlets, was a high school colleague back in mid-1970s in Roseau. We lived in a boarding house in Bath road. She was one of only three Kalinago girls attending the Convent High School during that period. Today she is preparing her young charges for brighter futures by telling them that there are no boundaries to prevent them from succeeding at the highest levels of society.

She and her team are pounding into the students’ heads and mind-sets that they can and will become doctors, lawyers, engineers, geneticists, generals, journalists or geologists and such. I also stopped by her home in the northern part of the territory in Bataca to see her husband who I grew up with further east.

We stopped at the small roadside souvenir shops which dots the landscape and interacted with the vendors and passersby.  We observed the ancient traditional method of making Farine and cassava bread at a bakery in Salybia.

We finally said good bye to the Territory and its wonderful people and headed back to Castle Bruce at dusk with heavy clouds in the sky.  We then headed west through the rain forest to Roseau via the Antrim Valley, slowly negotiating the sharp hairpin turns, under the cover of darkness and a constant drizzle.

As our girls slept in the back seat, I thought of my school days at La Plaine Primary School when I was about their ages. Every morning we joyfully sang,’God save our gracious Queen, there will always be England and long live Britannia.’ Today, our students ought to be singing, ‘God save the Kalinago people and Territory, our First Nation.’