Corporation(BBC) film "Quest of the Carib Canoe", portraying their epic thousand mile sea voyage in an open canoe to find their ancestral homeland in South America. Centuries before Columbus came to the islands of the Caribbean, the Caribs had come as settlers themselves, setting off from the Orinoco Delta and travelling north in great ocean-going canoes.
For Jacob Frederick, a Carib artist and activist, returning home was a lifelong dream to rebuild a nation fragmented by time.
The film will be shown Sunday, November 19 at 4pm at the Native American Film and Video Festival at the Museum of the American
Indian Address:#1 Bowling Green,
New York City. Tel:212-314 7375.The Carib delegation, together
with the filmmaker will appear at the screening to introduce the film and answer questions..
During their stay in New York, the Caribs will make additonal visits to the Tribal Link foundation, the Bruce Museum, the Museum of Natural History and New York's Museo Del Barrio. They will also be interviewed on the "Circle of Red Nations" program of WBAI Radio.
The members of the delegation are Jacob Fredrick, Etienne Charles, John Francis and Carib Chief Garnette Joseph. Part of the goal is to raise awareness about the Caribs' struggle for survival as a people, a cultural crisis portrayed in the film. But the visit is also intended for a second voyage planned for 2001. For this trip, two canoes will carry Caribs from Dominica along with their new found cousins from the Orinoco Delta to connect to more than 50,000 Garifuna Caribs living in Belize. This journey will underscore the pan-Caribbean nature of the Caribs quest to carve an identity for themselves in the modern world. Here in the USA, a traveling exhibit is also planned for 2001 combining Carib arts and crafts with photography of contemporary Carib life, screening of the film, live video feed from the second voyage.
For further information regarding the Caribs' visit or these future events, please call 212-941-4090
A CARIB STALWART PASSES ON
As reported in "the Chronicle" on November 2, "the passing of eminent Carib community leader
Arthur Burton has left a void that will be hard to fill". As one Carib put it "we have lost a leader".
Mr. Burton, who died peacefully in his sleep on
the morning of Wednesday, October 11, aged 92 was Registrar of Births and Deaths for the Carib community for 50 years until 1998.
In that year for this and his role as ambassador for the Carib people he was awarded the Meritorious Service Award and Medal of Honor for meritorious service to the Commonwealth of Dominica.
More than 300 people not only from the Carib community but also from throughout the island and overseas attended the funeral at the Salybia Catholic Church on Tuesday, October 17.
He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Elisna Burton, and nine children, six sons, three
daughters and his sister, Marguerite.
Many historians today owe thir knowledge of Carib culture and Carib ways to the late Carib man..
According to his son, Agar, Mr Burton was an inventor, a tailor, barber,fisherman, agriculturist, carpenter, a man of all trades,who not only built his own house but build many other houses for his family.He was also a self taught musician who could sing,play the violin,the guitar and the melodica for his friends and family and the organ
in the church for many years.
Mr. Burton will always be remembered by his community. May he rest in peace.