‘Our Culture, Earth’s Future – Saving the Environment, Live the Indigenous Way’

By Petamber Persaud

Although there is a vast amount of literature written on and about the indigenous peoples of Guyana, only a small handful of that corpus is written in English by the indigenous. However that small amount ‘amounts’ to an importantdegree of insight into the joys and heartrending tribulationsof a life,because that small corpus really goes to the heart of the issues of the indigenous.

This is not to say that the other writings do not address real issues, but the other writings cannot be substituted for “the real McCoy”. A non-indigenous cannot really understand or even imagine what encroachment means to a culture that has been ‘entrenched’ for eons, a non-indigenous writer cannot feel nor related to the damage caused by that encroachment, a non-indigenous writer cannot understand what marginalization means in the land of your birth – the land into which you breathe  life. This is not to say it is impossible for non-indigenous writers to mirror some aspects of that society, mindfulthat the rendition by non-indigenous may be misleading and may even give credence to stereotyping.

The “real McCoy” comes from the likes of Basil Rodrigues when he cried out in his lamentation, “A Merry Indian no more”; David Campbell viewing the situation “Through Arawak Eyes”, and Stephanie Correia who, in “Arrows from the bow”, was on target, every time and even without taking aim at anyone: an indictment on the whole Guyanese society.

In Guyana, there were, and are, some writers who have made, and continue to make, significant attempts to give more credence to the voice of the indigenous. These attempts go way back to Guyana’s first major poet, Egbert Martin, running thinly through the ages, until we come to another Martin, this time Martin Carter; and others likeWilson Harris,Henry Josiah, Sis. Rose Madeline, Odeen Ishmael, A J Seymour, Ian McDonald, Mark McWatt, R. Lal Singh and Walter MacArthur Lawrence.

So this exploration of the indigenous way of life covers a long period of writing, spanning more than 130 years – and yet it falls short. Of course, it is difficult to jump into the skin of the indigenous, even for those writers who have lived among the indigenous for years, married to their ways,and issuingoffspring.

It would be useful at this point to see how the firstset of non-indigenous writers and the contemporary set of non-indigenous writers, a century later, viewed the indigenous.

Egbert Martin’s “The Hammock Maker, An Indian Eclogue”, raises the issue of our elderly population: of men and women who have given their best years and are left with just memories of bygone days to tide them over while they await death.

Bowed with age and feebleness…

Crowned with locks all silvery white

Eyes so dim and lustreless

Slowly sinking in life’s night

Crooning over bygone days…

Longing, longing to be dying…

Henry G. Dalton in “The Carib’scomplaint” laments the degradation and loss of the traditional ways.

Land of the jaguar, the parrot, and palm

Land of the forest, savannah, and plain!

Where is the stillness, majestic and calm,

Which once our Guiana saw peacefully reign?

Where the hunting-ground, where is the field.

For us and our children subsistence to yield?

But where are the tribes …

Chasing the wild deer through its avenues green?

…But where are the canoes, and the tree-fashion’d bark,

Which once o’er these waters used swiftly to glide?

And where is the helmsman, and where is thecrew.

That fearless and calm through its cataracts flew?

But where is the arrow, and where is the bow…

But where is the marksman, and where is the hand…

But where is the fisher, whose cunning and art,

As subtle and fleet as the sun’s flashing beam,

Could follow and slay them, in spite of their speed,

With bone-pointed barb, or the tube-hollow’d reed?

And finally, IanMcDonald, adds his piece on the difficult of integration.

All his life he knew forests,

Forest and the great rivers.

Why bring him in town to die?

…He should be with brothers,

He should have died with jaguars and stars

And wind rising in the trees…

We now have literature written by both indigenous and non-indigenous, both from thenand now, yet the full and true picture is still to be fleshed out. This could only happen if the indigenous are encouraged to write more about their way of life which is important to our future – as enunciated through the theme of Indigenous Heritage Month 2016 – “Our Culture, Earth’s Future – Saving the Environment, Live the Indigenous Way”.

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com

What’s happening:Now under production “An Anthology of Contemporary Indigenous Verse from Guyana”. For further information, please contact me at the abovementioned contacts.