Teamwork was a notable feature of the Guyanese team of artistes and artisans from the Rupununi, at a recently concluded cultural festival held in Brazil.
During January 3-4, artists, crafts and foods from Guyana, Venezuela and Brazil were on show at the Three-Nation Fronteira Cultural Festival held in the Brazil town of Pacaraima, near the border with Venezuela. The event, which is organised by Social Service of Commerce (SESC), a hugely successful Brazilian social enterprise, is in its third year and growing in popularity due to its unique collaborative nature to showcase the music, arts, crafts and foods from the three neighbouring nations in one location.
The distinctive diversity of Guyanese culture was reflected in the variety of performances, foods and handicrafts on display and the harmony and team spirit among the Guyanese participants.
Behi Barzegar, who is a development management consultant and enterprise development specialist in Lethem in Region Nine, informed Guyana Times Sunday Magazine of the truly unifying occasion for the Guyanese team showcasing in Brazil.
“There was a wonderful closeness of our team irrespective of race, age or gender. Everyone was Guyanese… Moreover, we were ‘Rupununian’ and it was very touching the way everyone supported each other,” she noted.
Classical East Indian dancer Kavita Datt-Dawsta captivated the spectators with her sensational and high energy performance. Kavita, who is the only professional pharmacist in Rupununi in her formal role, said she loved the opportunity to experience different cultures. “The exposure to Brazilian and Venezuelan art and culture blew my mind!” she added.
Charismatic reggae artist Desmond Anthony Adams, also known as ‘Fine Man’, thrilled the audience with his stage banter as well as his music. Fine Man is the vocalist for his band The Frontline Wailers and was supported by colleague Denise D’Aguiar.
“This is a good event. We need more events like this that make people partake in loving vibes! And it is definitely more fun being in a mixed group because you learn from each other,” Adams expressed.
Also popular with the crowd was the Venezuelan calypso band that charmed the audiences with the steel drum music and an extravaganza of costumed dancers and carnival atmosphere.
Behi noted too that artisans from Guyana were by far the most professional, and attracted enormous interest due to the unique design, high quality and range of the craft work and traditional food items.
Master craftsman George Tancredo from Nappi village, renowned for his amazing balata figures, sold out almost his entire stock. The colourful and intricately woven baskets by Sameria Williams of Rupununi Crafters attracted much attention, including that of the regional president of SESC, Airton Dias and his wife who purchased three of the largest pieces within minutes of arriving at Sameria’s stall. Dias was so impressed by the craft work he has asked the organisers to collaborate with the Guyanese coordinator for the event, and arrange for the Guyanese craft workers to hold training workshops in Boa Vista for their Brazilian counterparts.
Also attending the festival were Veronica Farias of Medicines from Trees, Annai; Goretti Luiz from Shulinab Women’s Group; Kim Casimero from Helping Hands nut processors in St. Ignatius, and Joan Baretto, jewellery maker also from St Ignatius.
Most of the participants had sufficient knowledge of the Portuguese language to get by, but additional interpretation services were provided by Lawrence Chung, a craft retailer from Lethem, and Denise D’Aguiar assigned to the group by SESC.
Representatives from each country were invited on the stage to receive a commemorative gift from Dias. Goretti Luiz proudly collected the plaque on behalf of the Guyanese team.
The organisers, SESC – RR (Serviço Social do Comércio em Roraima) provided transportation and accommodation for the participants from all three countries. According to the SESC-RR website, the festival aims to “bring together cultural diversities in the municipality of Pacaraima to people of the triple border, Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana. [The] event considers the plurality of peoples and strengthens multi-national border identities facing the Latin American cultural scene.”
Additionally, the event is described as “a space for the exchange and integration of the triple frontiers, where cultures… fuse constantly in an artistic mosaic.”
It includes musical shows with local attractions and guests, performances of traditional cultural performances as well as reggae, Indian dance, photographic exhibition, regional cuisine and crafts.
The festival was first publicized when a small delegation from SESC attended the Rupununi Expo, meeting stakeholders and potential participants on whom they based their selection of participants and coordinating services. At the same time, they used the opportunity to distribute posters and promotional materials to advertise the event.
“The Cultural Frontiera, designed by the President of the SESC-RR, Airton Dias, aims to foster fresh dialogue and new concepts, stimulate the appreciation of culture between the peoples and, consequently, of the artists, therefore promotion, circulation, and dissemination of culture has been the objective of the SESC-RR, [in Brazil], as well as internationally” commented Carolina Andrade, Manager of the SESC Culture-RR at the festival.
In the course of 2 days, the SESC Cultural Fronteira shows hosted about 9,000 people, between the public resident of Pacaraima and tourists coming from Venezuela, in particular in the region of the Gran Sabana and in addition to those from Guyana.
Manoel Rolla Vilas Boas, president of Canoe Collective Cultural Association who was present at the festival, praised the Guyanese team, “It was all beautiful. You were outstanding and were very successful. The event was super organized. I wish you all the success in the world and a wonderful 2014,” he extolled.
