Local personalities urge Dominicans to embrace both traditional and contemporary Creole culture. The country’s Chief Cultural Officer, Raymond Lawrence, said it is high time the people adopted new and old forms of the local Creole culture. Lawrence made this assertion at the Dominica 2019 Country Conference.
According to Lawrence, Dominicans have tried their bests to marry both traditional and modern Creole cultures. But he said more needs to be done in this regard for better cultural expression. He therefore urged community leaders to lend greater support to enable the people to excel at this task. He added that various music and dance, as well as music festivals and independence celebrations, play vital roles in promoting the nation’s Creole heritage and identity
“We have to include the Creole language in our schools,” Lawrence said. “And encourage the school children to learn and speak the language better. We need to wear our Creole wear. And on the contemporary side, we can also create other types of modern Creole music based on various rhythms that we have in Dominica for now.”
Dr. Lennox Honeychurch, a veteran historian billed to speak at the August iteration of the conference, said Dominicans should return to the ancient models of house construction in the country. Honeychurch said the indigenous people of Dominica had unique architectural structures that originated with African building traditions but later transited to French European styles.
Sadly we are abandoning a lot of these things, and you see a lot of new homes going up after Hurricane David that are forgetting that the breeze comes from the east and they are putting the bedrooms on the west, including the boiler….. But in the material culture, we are abandoning a lot of these things because our young engineers and architects are not sufficiently aware about this and this is an area we have to focus on.
Dr. Lennox Honeychurch: Historian
Kimone Joseph, head of UWI Open Campus Dominica, said Dominicans as indigenous Caribbean people had always thrived on the Creole culture from time immemorial. She said culture is essential for national development, and that the pride of a people is tied to their cultural heritage.
The third Dominica Country Conference is slated for August and tagged “Creole as Cultural Heritage: Framing, Strengthening and Advocating”.
This article is copyright © 2019 DOM767
