Dear Editor,

The genesis of the so called western civilization which spread in the new world with the indoctrination of colonialism through conventional education to indigenous people and others, indoctrinated the masses to conceptualise us through the lens of a particular hegemony hence it labelled indigenous and other minority cultures as backward and primitive, their languages as dialects and their people as tribes.

This sort of schooling and language began to be practised consciously or not by most people for example in the media profession, by politicians, pastors, educators and many others in Guyanese mainstream society. To combat this reality it is imperative to decolonize education, religion, politics inter alia, so that mainstream society can stop referring to us as tribes, and start calling us people, ethnic group or nation. Also cease the use of referring to indigenous languages as dialects and call them languages, because of their autochthonous nature.

In our contemporary world in the Guyanese context, indigenous people also are faced with the challenge of neo-colonialism an offshoot of globalization coming from governments, politicians, churches, non governmental organizations, researchers, and mining companies etc. The impacts from this hegemony are inevitable and are rapidly reconfiguring and transforming most elements of our original customs and a threat to the local languages particularly of the (young generation) generating a feeling of ‘sentimental pissimism’, to use the words of the anthropologist Marshall Sahlins to describe the socio-cultural reality.

Editor, however, living in the twenty first century things have evolved and continue to change unlocking many things for us indigenous people in Guyana. Some of these changes were made by ourselves being proactive in revising history to learn where we came from and where we are going. We draw our indigenist inspiration and insight from the lessons of indigenous peoples, such as (in the Americas) valuing of communality, solidarity, reciprocity, social justice, equality, complementarity and harmony with nature.

This being said, in the Guyanese context there exists a strong indigenous cosmology which is comprised of our ancestral wisdom, our myths, our languages although they are being threatened, our way of producing science, our modus operandi, our spirituality, our pre-Columbian knowledge of geography and conservation etc. Including our philosophy which is linked to land, especially being the first to occupy and tame Guyana which later evolved into a nation state. Besides, there exists our indigenous perspectivism, which is perceiving things differently through the lens of our culture and beliefs which usually contrast to top downwards or the conventional approach from Governments etc as is mentioned in the book Society against State written by the anthropologist Pierre Clastres. These aspects of indigenism have empowered many of us who are concerned and who keep the struggle of our people for land, autonomy including to decolonize conventional wisdom that labeled us with names.

Hence, armed with this wealth of knowledge that comprise our indigenous cosmovision, it is paramount for us indigenous people to be grounded in our roots and to revisit our sources often, especially our ancestral wisdom to get inspiration and learn to dialogue and constantly decolonize neo-colonism and its repercussion on us or else we will have no original indigenous cultural patrimony left to highlight our country in the future.

In conclusion, as we celebrate our indigenous heritage this month under the theme “Proud of our indigenous identity, celebrating in unity”, we should really be a proud people who celebrate a common identity comprising of a different worldview which is rich in ancestral wisdoms and a people of resilience towards a bright future living in harmony side by with others in our multi -ethnic beautiful Guyana.

Happy heritage month to all!

Yours faithfully,