Dear Editor,
As Guyana once again celebrates Amerindian Heritage month please allow me to share my views on the state of our Amerindian brothers and sisters today. First of all it was never the intention of Amerindian people to be singled out from the rest of the population.
All the indigenous people of Guyana wanted was to be given equal opportunities and to be respected in this country. Even since Independence it was the desire of Amerindians to stay in their communities and be able to develop themselves and their communities. It was their hope that many institutions found on the coastland would have been established in their regions – institutions that would have enabled them to access services and to achieve a high standard of education. In the 1970s Amerindian communities had highly trained teachers from the coastland and thus many Amerindian children were able to achieve high grades at internal examinations and were given scholarships to pursue secondary and technical education in Georgetown. Many of these students went on to attend the university in Guyana and overseas. In the 1970s and early 1980’s Amerindian students graduated as doctors, pilots and engineers, but except for frequent visits to their respective communities most of these Amerindian graduates settled on the coastland because no jobs were offered to them to serve in the regions they had originated from. This trend continued for many years and still continues today because our hinterland remains undeveloped.
It is interesting to note that many Amerindian girls were trained at the Carnegie School of Home Econo-mics, some of them in the field of hotel hospitality, yet not one single major hotel was ever built in the interior of Guyana. It is also important to note that Amerindian students who had lived with guardians up until the dormitory was built at Liliendaal, had performed better than students who lived in the dormitory. The reason for this is the lack of supervision at the dormitory and the reluctance of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs to create a home atmosphere. The students at the dormitory are very confined and are given little opportunity to interact with other young people outside of the school environment. At the dormitory the students are only allowed to watch restricted channels on television, ie, Channels 11, 25, 65 and 69. The television is programmed so as not to allow the students to watch Channels 6, 7, 9 and 13, so they do not know of Prime News and Capitol News.
Amerindians need more than handouts from the government. Amerindian people need to see real development in their regions; they need to see jobs being created for their young people who leave school and have nothing to do. Many of them migrate to Brazil and Venezuela to earn a living for themselves and family.
Amerindian people prefer to be integrated into our society than to be separated from the rest of society; our indigenous people want to see genuine development in their communities and want to be in control of economic activities in their areas.
Editor, Amerindian people want to be able to elect their leaders without interference from central government, and when leaders are elected they expect that government would respect their decision and give their elected representative all the co-operation that they need.
The Amerindian heritage festival doesn’t have to be hidden away at Sophia; why not site an Amerindian village at the National Stadium and have the festival there for a few days?
Yours faithfully,
Clive Fredericks
