The University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus together with the Dominica Ministry of Tourism and Culture is holding a 2-day conference. The conference is tagged “Creole as a Cultural Heritage: Framing, Strengthening and Advocating.” It is aimed at promoting and revitalizing the country’s Creole heritage for better cultural and historical awareness.
A Chief Technical Officer at the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Roland Royer, lauded the activities of UWI in advancing the history of the Kalinago people in the light of their Creole importance. He said the civilization of Dominica lies in the multi-ethnic nature of its antecedents, adding the country’s ancestors did a lot to make Dominica what it is today in the face of overwhelming colonization.
“As proud beneficiaries of this amazing country, we owe a debt of gratitude to our ancestors who struggled and fought to preserve what we have today,” Royer said. “This struggle for national identity, it is rooted mainly in our creole sensibility, elements of which are highlighted in many aspects of our culture has helped to pull our society together, and give us peace and stability in this long struggle against colonialism and neo-colonialism.”
The chief technical officer said the culture of Dominica is closely rooted in Creole heritage, clarifying that the country’s culture is deeply influenced by Creole traditions and history.
“Our creole culture is rooted in our various influences and many elements that have impacted our small-island state over the centuries,” Royer explained. “It is not always well-understood and not fully appreciated by many of us. There is clearly a need for us to have a better understanding of those impacts and how best we can utilize them to create a peaceful and just society.”
A senior lecturer at the University of the Bedfordshire in the UK, Dr. Violet Cuffy, said the scheduled cultural conference is timely and important for exploring the dynamic variations of Creole culture and its impact on the Dominican national life.
“We seek to understand each other’s representations of various creole dimensions and retain a common and unified paradigm for the work of our proposed network,” Cuffy said. “The aim here is to develop a platform on which future representations of the creole culture can be strengthened and advanced as it continues to evolve from one era and/or generation to the next.”
Awarded a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to fund the establishment of an International Creole Research Network, Cuffy said the conference will provide the necessary platform for advocating for best Creole practices as seen in sister Creole nations such as Haiti, St. Lucia, Martinique, and Guadeloupe.
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