The wee hours of Sunday morning saw 20-year-old stunner, Sherryanna Balkaran of Paramakatoi being crowned Miss Indigenous Heritage at the National Cultural Centre. Sherryanna’s fluency when she spoke and her confident stride throughout each segment found favour with the judges and by the end of night, they were ready to bestow the prestigious honour on her.
“… It was surreal. I was ecstatic, nervous, I can’t begin to explain. Right now, it’s sinking in and I’m happy; I’m enjoying,” the Patamona beauty excitedly shared earlier this week.
The pageant consisted of five segments: Intro-duction, Talent, Evening Wear, Cultural Wear and Final Question. Introduction was one of Sherryanna’s two favourite categories as she got the opportunity to introduce herself in the Patamona dialect. The other was the Final Question.
Her undoubtedly outstanding performance in the pageant did not come easy but took tireless days of practice. In the run up to the pageant, she said, training was intense and two weeks prior to coronation night things got hectic. Each contestant was trained on perfecting her speech, on how to be emphatic, to appease the crowd and perfecting her struts which included learning to do the ‘T’ stand. They were trained by the Fung family from 11 in the morning to one in the afternoon each day for speech class and from 6.30 in the evening until the trainer was satisfied with the practice regarding modelling.
