7thconferenceMagazinewide

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Welcome...
I
f the modern world lets the indigenous cultures fade, then
they will spend a long hard journey into the future in search
of values of the past.
Obala! To all who have a care for the continued condition of planet
earth and its deterioration. The Maroons because of their contin-
uing warfare, 85 years of armed conflict they left no edifices as did
the colonial powers, what they left is as valuable. They left trails
along which if you walk you can hear the ancestors whispering.
They left us a culture with values to live by. One such value is to
make decisions mindful of the next generation and absence of
community where the members are committed to each other in the
pursuit of development strategies.
“The law of the jungle” is the abiding mantra.
The Law of the jungle is as old as the sky and as true as the
wind. And as the vine encircles the tree trunk, so the law runs
backwards and forward. The strength of the wolf is the pack
and the strength of the pack is the wolf. The wolf that lives by
this law prosper, the wolf that does not perishes.
The purpose of the conference is a borderless commu-
nity of indigenous people where it transcends
Geographical Boundaries... And, as the
Maroons did, having one goal, that of
freedom, so the interest of an indigenous
community without borders is about
protecting the rights of indigenous commu-
nities worldwide.
To be able to shine the collective light of these commu-
nities, on the plight of individual communities to affect
change. These interests have spanned centuries, and
are as old as the sky and as true as the wind and are
now to be realized.
More in the magazine.
“Jan Jan catu” what will be... will be... will be...
Col. Frank Lumsden

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Charles Town Maroon Council 7th Annual International Maroon Conference
Meet the Organising
Committee...
Contents
© Charles Town Maroon Council
ISSN 0799-4354
Cover and layout: Anya Gloudon-Nelson
Published by Charles Town Maroon Council
Charles Town, Portland, Jamaica
Tel: 1 (876) 445 2861
E-mail: conference@maroons-jamaica.com
Colonel Frank Lumsden
Leader of the Charles Town maroons and chief organizer of the
conference. Colonel Lumsden is a fine artist and holds a BSc.
Management from Southern Illinois University.
Dr. Frances Botkin
Dr. Frances R. Botkin, Professor of English, teaches British
Romanticism, Caribbean Literature, and Gender Studies at
Towson University in Baltimore. With Dr. Paul Youngquist,
she is co-editing a collection of essays on Maroon studies, The
Abeng and the Book. She has been a conference organiser
since 2009.
Dr. Paul Youngquist
Paul Youngquist is a Professor of English at the University of
Colorado, Boulder. His areas of specialization include British
Romanticism, Atlantic Studies, Science Fiction, Literary and
Cultural Theory.
Marcus Goffe
Marcus Goffe is a Jamaican Attorney-at-Law. Mr. Goffe is in
the final year of his PhD research at Queen Mary. His research
focuses on the protection of indigenous rights, traditional
knowledge and traditional cultural expressions in the
Caribbean.
Evan Williams
Principal Architect/ Designer/Planner. Jamaican born, British
educated and American trained, Dr. Williams has established
an international network of professional and personal relation-
ships not only in the field of architecture, art and design, but
also in entertainment and Tourism.
Dianne McIntosh
Dianne McIntosh is a Special Educator, sociologist,
Community Development Expert and practitioner. She has
served in the United Nations and the Government of Jamaica
specializing in the area of public finance management reforms
and marginalized and vulnerable populations. Her focus is on
economic empowerment, particularly of women and children in
the development of their local economy and community.
Flavius Laidley
Flavius Laidley is the webmaster for the Conference sit. He is a
trained and practising Systems Analyst. Flavius has been
involved in events creation, planning, management, marketing
with a special interest in tourism and sports tourism since the
early 1970s.
Welcome ..........................................................1
Meet the Organising Committee......................2
Conference Rationale ......................................3
From the Editor................................................3
Scenes at the Asafu Yard..................................4
Drums Music and the Maroons .......................7
The Intangible Cultural Heritage of the
Windward Maroons .........................................8
Interbeng..........................................................9
Ayawear - Modern fashions with an
African Resurgence .........................................9
Blackbirding Shame yet to be
acknowledged in Australia.............................10
The Karamante (Bench) Drum ......................11
Programme.....................................................12
Jamaica Australia Historical Connection
and the Black diaspora in the Australian
Pacific Region................................................14
Conference Flashback....................................16
Reflections on being an African Aboriginal
in White Australia..........................................17
Gamilaraay Language....................................19
The Child is Alive..........................................20
Garifuna People - A short history .................21
Charles Town Drummers and Dancers..........23

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T
he theme of this years Conference Maroons, Indigenous Peoples
and Indigeneity aims to link the Maroon people with Indigenous
people and their allies, from around the world.
Since 2003, under the leadership of Col. Frank Lumsden, the Charles
Town Maroons have held an annual Qua Day celebration on June 23rd.
This day is designed to commemorate the life of the heroic Qua, one of
the great defenders of the Maroon people and culture (whose image
appears on the front of this magazine). Since 2008, the celebrations have
incorporated three additional days leading up to Qua Day, which feature
traditional Maroon dance, craft and cuisine demonstrations and an inter-
national academic conference on Maroon history and cultural heritage.
This year for the first time we are incorporating wrestling displays;
wrestling being an important cultural activity of Indigenous peoples
around the globe, a way of strengthening mind and body.
This diverse range of activities, currently span over four days, leading
up to June 23rd, and have come to national and regional prominence. The
events continue to serve to gather Maroons from local Maroon and non-
Maroon settlements in Jamaica as well as those in Belize and in Suriname,
providing an opportunity to celebrate Maroon history and culture.
Additionally, the events at the Asafu Yard are part of local strategies
employed by the Charles Town Maroon community to safeguard its intan-
gible cultural heritage and to provide opportunities for the ongoing
survival and transmission of sacred cultural Knowledge from Elders to the
youth.
We ask that those who visit us come together to share, to learn and to
celebrate. The Maroon peoples history and culture reflects that of the
Indigenous peoples of the world in many ways. We seek to link the recur-
ring struggles of Indigenous people, be it in Australia, Papua New Guinea,
Suriname, Canada, North America, Mexico or Jamaica, around Indigenous
rights. This year we will be welcoming scholars from Australia, Canada,
the Caribbean, Jamaica, Morocco, Puerto Rico, Suriname, and the United
States.
Above all, enjoy the beauty of the Maroon lands and the ambience of
Charles Town – walk, swim, eat, listen, learn, make new friends, move to
the rhythm and dance!!!
The Col. Frank Lumsden has a vision that unites the Indigenous
peoples of the world as one people without borders. We welcome you to
Charles Town to experience the ongoing cultural heritage of the Maroon
people and that of other Indigenous peoples. Together we celebrate the
ongoing relevance of our global Indigenous cultures!
From the Editor
Guudji yiigu!!! (greetings)
I
t is a privilege to be counted as a friend of
the Maroon people and a fellow traveller in
their quest for the transnational connection
of Indigenous peoples "without borders". After
all, the borders that exist in the world today are
the constructs of the recent centuries of world
colonisation - they are not "normal and natural"
ways of being and they don't have to be there!
The Maroon people show great leadership
in the worldwide movement of Indigenous
peoples toward greater freedoms, better
lifestyles and enhanced wellbeing. This is why
it is such an honour for me to be invited to be
editor of Maroon publications, including this
magazine and a journal.
This first edition of the magazine, devel-
oped to mark the 7th Annual International
Maroon conference has a variety of articles that
begin to reflect this international Indigenous
connection. Importantly, we begin with Maroon
cultural ways and you will find important pieces
on Maroon legacies throughout this journal – the
Karamante drum; Marcia "Kim" Douglas’fasci-
nating history of the Charles Town drummers
and dancers; Leroy Mabrak Mattis explaining
the Maroon proficiency with music and drum-
ming; the spiritual and political importance of
Flavius Laidley’s concept of Interbeng, that
draws on ancient wisdom. Importantly, David
Brown explains the importance of the unique
intangible cultural heritage of Windward
Maroons
We are blessed to have the wonderful poetry
of Afua Cooper in this edition. Her work is the
living testament to the continued inspiration of
Grandy Nanny, the "mother of us all", the
agency of black women and the continued rele-
vance of African culture.
The other side of the colonialist history, the
perspective that gives Indigenous peoples
agency, also connects us all. While the institu-
tion of slavery drove the colonialist ambitions of
white people and had an indelible impact on our
peoples now, in hindsight, the common experi-
ence of its impacts can unite us all. Within the
Caribbean, the history of the Garifuna people of
the island of St Vincent has resonance with that
of many Indigenous people who took their
freedom from slavery and resisted attempts to

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Scenes at the Asafu Yard....
re-enslave them with every fibre of their
being. This too is the story of the
Maroons, of the South Sea Islander and
many Australia Aboriginal groups, to
name but a few.
This contemporary and historical
connection through the impacts of colo-
nial slavery is eloquently expressed in
the article by Kaiya Aboagye from
Australia. It is also reflected in the after-
math of the human trade in the Pacific
and the legacy of the Australian South
Sea Islanders. The President of their
association in Australia, Emelda Davis
explains their history and connection in
this publication. The article that I have
contributed reveals what is not widely
known, that is, historic African
Jamaican connections to Australia from
the time of the First Fleet. The trans-
portation of anti-slavery rebels and the
arrival of free blacks, from Jamaica to
Australia, connects us historically and
is now reflected in Aboriginal families.
Many Aboriginal groups in
Australia are beginning to learn of the
wonderful culture of celebration and
inclusion of the Maroon people. Paul
Spearim a Gamilaaray elder sends
greetings from his people on the occa-
sion of this conference, in his language
with a translation into English. Even
in this message we have an opportunity
to learn something of the deep signifi-
cance of Aboriginal belief. The
Gamilaaray understand the time of
creation as "before the big light", before
the light of the sun was on Earth. It is
this moment, a moment of the unity and
interdependence of all life, that holds
the paradigms for the way we need to
live in this world.
This magazine would not have
been possible without the dedication
and coordination wizardry of Flavius
Laidley of Slowly Jamaica. The
wonderful layout and graphics are due
to the artistic flair of Anya Gloudon. It
is a joy to work with them - thank you!
Buwadi!!! (Let it be)
Yindyamarra!!!! (Respect)
– One love
Dr Victoria Grieves
From the Editor - cont’d

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T
he Maroons are from West Africa.
West Africa has the highest level of
Drum Music.They even developed the
Talking Drum.
Ghana has the highest level of music on the
Coast in that they play real Polyphonic Drum
Music which baffles the world even today.
They will use seven drums and play seven
different melodic lines which synchronise and
bring healing to individuals as we only have
two ears and our nervous system has to
process the sound.
Therefore you can be healed or they can make you feel high
naturally. That is what happened to Dave Brubeck when he
visited the West Coast of Africa and he heard AGBAJA. He
came home and had to make TAKE 5 which was a big hit in
the jazz community and in the western world but it was not
his composition.
The Maroons are from the West Coast and mostly from
Ghana, hence they can use their drums to send messages
from hillside to hillside which they used against the British
and they can have entertainment drumming for celebra-
tions and enjoyment.
Their rich and deep cultural heritage allows
them to just play and understand whatever
they want to play as they are using “drum
language” which snobbish individuals do not
understand and think that they are just
“beating their drums”. In traditional West
Africa drums were played and were never
beaten...
At the classical level of Drum Music the
drums play specific melody lines to achieve
synchronicity. There are AGBAJA & THE
PUBERTY DANCE for example which the musicologists
either hide or do not know about.
The Maroons in Jamaica in this time probably just play
entertaining and celebration drums and rhythms but they
come from a rich musical and cultural background from the
West Coast of Africa.
As Jamaicans we are indeed a blessed country with very
deep musical and cultural roots from the West Coast of
Africa.
Drums Music and the Maroons
Leroy Mabrak Mattis

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I
n her book “Mother of Us All” Carla Gottlieb quotes
from Leann Thomas Martin (1973, p.82) who writes on
Maroon history and its impact on their identity:
The primary cultural tool for the Maroons, the primary factor
in cultural identity and continuity is history….History is
important to Maroon society for the following reasons: it
provides explanations for contemporary customs, it is a
major source of motivation for behaviour, it defends and
maintains certain aspects of customs, and it contributes to
the Maroon’s image of themselves.
The Jamaican Maroons hold as important points of their
history, their guerrilla wars against the British army and the
many victories and strategic advantages they made during
the near century of battles that culminated with the treaties
of 1739 (Leeward Maroons) and 1740 (Windward Maroons).
Concomitant with the war years, were the many stories of
survival, and the legends that were attributed to their leaders
Kojo, Quao, and Nanny.
The Maroons have instituted set dates for the celebration of
victories, treaty signings and for ancestral veneration. At
these celebrations can be observed several intangible cultural
heritage elements that form the basis of the Jamaican
Maroon’s cultural identity. The celebrations and dates vary
from settlement to settlement and are currently marked as
follows:
• January 6 – Kwado/Cudjoe/Kojo Day in Accompong,
St. Elizabeth (Leeward Maroons). This day marks
Kojo’s “earthday” or birthday and is not to be confused
with March 1 (1739) when Kojo signed a peace treaty
with the British army’s Colonel John Gutherie and
Captain Sadler;
• June 23 – Asafu Yard in Charles Town, Portland where
the celebrations mark the anniversary of the signing of
the peace treaty between the British army and Quao on
June 23, 1739, following a famous victory for Quao over
the British troops near the Spanish River in Portland;
• 3rd Monday in October – National Heroes Day. This
marks Nanny Day in Moore Town, Portland, and pays
homage to the matriarch of the Jamaican Maroons;
• August 1 – Emancipation Day. This day is marked by
the Scott’s Hall Maroons in St. Mary. The events in this
community are not as elaborate as the other three and
there has been a hiatus for several years
It is interesting to note that within their own communities,
the Jamaican Maroons have not only initiated celebrations,
but have created unique spaces of memory. In Accompong,
St. Elizabeth ritualistic celebrations are centred around the
sacred Kindah Tree and the peace cave; in Charles Town and
Scott’s Hall, activities are centred at the Asafu Yard or
meeting place; in Moore Town the Maroons gather by Bump
Grave, the resting place of Granny/Grandy Nanny. It is inter-
esting to note that no parts of these celebratory rituals are
staged outside of the Maroon territories and as such they are
organised, certainly at their genesis, as unique Maroon
creations. Outsiders, non-Maroons or obroni have to journey
to these spaces to observe the celebrations.
Mr. David Brown
Senior Research Fellow
African Caribbean Institute of
Jamaica/ Jamaica Memory Bank
(a Division of The Institute of
Jamaica)
The Intangible Cultural Heritage
of the Windward Maroons, Jamaica
A drawing depicting Maroons in the mountains.

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INTERBENG
The abeng is the traditional communication device,
made from a cow’s horn, which is used by the
Maroons to communicate. Interestingly, a similar
device is used in the former Dutch Antilles territories
such as Curaçao and Sint Maarten, where it is referred
to as the Kachu di Baka. The abeng blower is versed
in the art of the transmission of secret and sacred
messages and holds a revered place in traditional
Maroon society.
Interbang marks the evolution of this form of commu-
nication and speaks to the creative nexus between
traditional Maroon communication and the most
powerful and popular method of electronic communi-
cation, the internet. The Interbeng, conceived by the
Charles Town Maroons, is the platform for the engage-
ment of Maroons locally and in the Disapora on all
matters related to Maroon history, culture and socio-
political and economic life. It will be launched on the
occasion of the 276th anniversary of the signing of the
peace treaty between the Leeward Maroons and the
British, during the Quao Day celebratory activities.
Charles Town Maroon Col. Frank Lumsden blows the abeng
F
or the past 5 years, designer Arlene Passley has
been presenting beautiful afrocentric fashions at
the annual Charles Town Maroon Conference.
She became involved after her first visit to the museum
there in Charles Town where she saw her surname on a
short list of maroon family names.
This discovery she said, prompted her to explore her
own maronage, and has since been embracing and cele-
brating a proud maroon ancestry. This year she will be
presenting a line of afrocentric children's wear, in addi-
tion to the usual array of amazingly beautiful pieces.
Ayawear is a fashion house built on the foundation of
African sovereignty and serves to encourage others
throughout the diaspora; especially Jamaican women,
to let their fashion statement speak loudly and proudly
of their African identity.
AYAWeAr
- Modern fashions
with an African resurgence

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A
s a second generation descendant of South Sea
Islanders (kanaks) who were ruthlessly recruited
(blackbirded) by third parties to serve in the most
appalling conditions as plantation workers in the sugar
industry of Australia in 1847 (starting in NSW) then an
influx to Queensland between 1863 and 1904. I am apart of
a family of activists who have sought to attain recognition
and social justice for my people from the Australian
Government.
Australian South Sea Islanders do not have an immigration
history and are recognised as a ‘distinct cultural group’
suffering the same disadvantages as Indigenous Australian’s
still today. These findings are in the 1992 Human Rights &
Equal Opportunity Commission report ‘the call for recogni-
tion’ which saw recognition for my people in 1994 by the
Commonwealth, 2000 by the Queensland Government, 2001
implementation QLD ‘Action plan’ (de-funked 2010), 2013
NSW Parliament and 2014 Federal Parliament a ‘motion of
regret’ acknowledgement debate on slavery.
Some 55,000 men and fewer women were brought from
Vanuatu, Solomon's and eighty surrounding islands
under whatAustralia called the indentured labour
trade, which was akin to slavery. My grand-
father was taken off the island of Tana in
what is now the Tafea Province of
Vanuatu in the late 1800’s. He was one
of the many children whose birth right
of freedom was stripped from him at
the age of 12 years old when he was
taken to work in the sugar cane fields.
He never returned home to his family.
The experience and belief of our ASSI
communities, passed down through
oral histories, is that our forefathers
were enslaved regardless of the
pretence of contracts. Most definitely
this was a legal framework for what
was in fact criminal activity, which saw
the early deaths of thirty percent of these
‘labour recruits’, buried in unmarked
graves across north eastern Australia.
It was illegal to bring children under
the age of 16 years unless
accompanied by an adult however as we progress our agenda
there are many community stories including my grandfathers
that contradict those regulations.
The 1995 documentary 'Sugar Slaves' my grandfather’s story
is told by his eldest surviving daughter, Phyllis Corowa. She
describes how he escaped deportation by the 1901 Pacific
Island Labourers Act, which inhumanely deported some
7,000 people on mass, tearing established families and loved
ones apart after forty years of existence. UQ professor Clive
Moore has recently written of this deportation; the wages of
15,000 deceased Islanders were used for this deportation and
furthermore the low hard earned wages of the Islanders were
used to pay part of their fare to return to the islands that in
some cases saw their whole male population kidnapped and
was once their homes. This was a cruel, heartless process
and one of shame to all Australians.
It gives me great pleasure however to know that the efforts
of my grandfather and our kanaka men and
women contributed significantly to building
the strong foundations of the sugar, pastoral
and maritime industries in Australia and
that we are now the third largest sugar
provider in the world as well as being
one of the wealthiest countries. And
what I find uncanny, and what
seems to me like a strange quirk of
fate, I discovered several years ago
that from where I work in my home
for the past 19 years at Pyrmont
NSW I was overlooking Pirrima
Park which was once called the
‘Sugar Wharf’ managed by CSR,
and yes! Sugar ships docked here
and refined the brown sugar from
the cane farms in QLD. These ships
were managed by Burns Philp and Co.
in the City of Sydney, the same
company that operated over labour
recruiting and trading ships
throughout the Pacific. CSR and
Blackbirding shame yet to be
acknowledged in Australia…
Emelda Davis
Emelda Davis with maroon feather - traditional
Tanna Island women’s ceremonial dress

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Burns Philp were companies built on the backs of kidnapped
Islander labourers. Further more notorious blackbirders
Robert Towns and John Mackay both have cities dedicated
in their names Townsville and Mackay respectively;
Benjamin Boyd was another in this history who has been
commemorated with the naming of Ben Boyd Road on
Sydney’s north shore.
Our lobbying has been arduous and has fallen on deaf ears
with trinkets of acknowledgement and funding. We struggle
with support for change in policy and the development of
meaningful programs and services. The current demographic
for our community is 40,000 strong, inclusive of 60% Torres
Strait Islanders of South Sea Islander descent due to the
‘labour trade’ and the ‘Coming of the Light’ (Christianity)
via SSI missionaries, and also east coast Aboriginal
Australians, some 40% of whom are married into or have
ASSI heritage. Through the agency of various South Sea
Islander agencies, including Australian South Sea Islanders
(Port Jackson) (ASSIPJ), the past five years have been
instrumental in creating a blanket awareness throughout the
nation of the untold history of our forefathers / mothers and
surviving descendants and has set in motion a political focus
to ensuring rightful recognition, inclusion and commemora-
tion for our families.
Important challenges ahead include initiating strategies for
ASSI to promote the implementation of policy changes
nationally that will see: the development of meaningful
programs and services in health, education, employment and
cultural recognition; the creation of visibility of our people,
culture and history in the history curriculums of our schools
and teaching institutions; a nation-wide survey undertaken
of ASSI demographics
Faith Bandler, Shireen Malamoo and our patron the Hon.
Bonito Mabo are amongst the most distinguished of our
elders and activists); establishing a forum to assist ASSI
communities in the Pacific to gain access to meaningful
work opportunities in Australia and reconnecting our
disposed families.
We have a long way to go for the successful establishment
of the ASSI people within that of the great nation of
Australia. It is journey to empowerment that I am proud to
be part of.
Emelda Davis President of the Australian South Sea
Islanders (Port Jackson) (ASSIPJ) © 3/6/15
Document prepared by: Emelda Davis (President)
Prof. Clive Moore
Marie Geissler
Australian South Sea Islanders (Port Jackson) Ltd
Email: assi.pj@gmail.com Mobile: 0416300946
Website: www.assipj.com.au
PO Box 117 Pyrmont NSW 2009, Sydney Australia
The Karamante (Bench) Drum is used by the Maroons to perform
healing. It is often called “bench drum” because it is made in the shape
of a bench. In the past the plantation owners would confiscate drums
and other musical instruments in an attempt to control the slaves on
the plantations. The Maroons cleverly created the drum to appear as
a bench allowing them to be hidden in plain sight.
The Karamante drum is played for several reasons - to
heal, communicate , charm and for recreation. The Maroons
say the Karamante Drum speaks a language of its own, it
speaks to the mind, body and soul. The Karamante drum is
still used today and can be found in Charles Town and Scotts
Hall Maroon towns.
In 2014, the Charles Town Maroon Council received the
UNESCO Award of Excellence for Handicraft for the Bench
Drum. On September 2, 2014 Marva Browne, Secretary-
General of the Curaçao National Commission for UNESCO
made the presentation to Col. Frank Lumsden. Sharing in the
moment are Barlow White, who made the winning drum (3rd
left), and Director of the UNESCO Kingston Office, Christine
Anne Norton.

10
Programme
Saturday June 20, 2015
1:00–2:00 pm: Methods of Marronage
“the Maroon Method”
Dr. Paul Youngquist,
University of Colorado, Boulder
“Maroon Is not a Color: Physical and
Cultural sustainability in the fugitive slave
Community of Jamaica”
Dr. Robert A. Benson,
Professor of Landscape Architecture,
Ball State University
“the Caribbean Court of Justice and the
rights of Indigenous Peoples: the Case of
the Maya v Belize”
Mr. Marcus Goffe,
Attorney at Law, PhD Candidate, School of
Law, Queen Mary, University of London
2:00pm–3:00pm: Maroon LegaCIes
“Maroons and the Colonial Police state”
Dr. Frances Botkin, Towson University
“Personalizing tradition: folkloric
Interpretations of Maroon Music and
dance in Paramaribo, suriname”
Dr. Corinna Campbell, Assistant Professor
of Music, Williams College
“safeguarding the Intangible Cultural
heritage of the Windward Maroons,
Jamaica”
Mr. David Brown, Senior Research Fellow,
African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica/
Memory Bank
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm: Wrestling Competition
in the sand Pit
5:00 pm–7:00 pm Conversation between
rastas and Maroons
with Mutabaruka
7:00 pm–7:30 pm Phillip supersad and the
akwaaba drummers
7:30 pm–8:00 pm Charles town Maroon
drummers and dancers
8:30 pm– 9:30 pm short films from Zimbabwe
• Jerusarema dance - traditional Mbende dance
"A short film showing performance of Jerusarema,
a Mbende traditional dance in Zimbabwe which
was recognized as World Intangible Heritage by
UNESCO. (15 minutes)"
• Mhuri Yekwa simbanegavi (simbanevagi family)
"A short film about a rural family in Zimbabwe
which makes and plays traditional instrument
called mbira. (12 minutes)"
Sunday June 21, 2015
Quao Victory day Celebration
1:00 p.m. Procession of Colonels and gaa’ man
Welcome – Colonel Frank Lumsden
Charles Town Maroons
greetings – Colonel Wallace Sterling
Cultural Performance – Moore Town Maroons
greetings – Colonel Prehay
Cultural Performance – Scotts Hall Maroons
greetings – Colonel Ferron Williams
Cultural Performance - Accompong Maroons

11
greetings from suriname
greetings – Gaa’man Gloria Simms,
“Mau Mau G”
Poem – Shauntay Grant, Halifax
Poet Laureate Emeritus
Capoeira demonstration
Wrestling demonstration
special guest speakers
– Mr Robert Parua, Officer-in- Charge/
Programme Specialist for Education/
Interim Officer for Culture UNESCO
Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean
– His Excellency Ambassador
Masanori Nakano - Embassy of Japan
Presentations:
“Wrestling and the Prison system in
Jamaica”
– Mr. Kevin Wallen, President of the
Jamaican Wrestling Federation
“the Lukumi health Initiative”
Ms. Marisol Cribeiro, Priest,
Church of the Lukumi Babalu-Aye
“Complementary diagnosis. Working with
other healing Modalities”
Jonathan Moore,
Doctor of Oriental Medicine
afrocentric fashion show by ayawear
Presentation on the status and awarding of the
nomination of the Blue and John Crow
Mountains as a UnesCo World heritage site
Monday June 22, 2015
• Guided hike
• River bathing
• Beach visit
• Maroon culinary workshop
• Maroon stories and drumming by the River Park
Tuesday June 23, 2015
noon: QUao daY
Discussions about Indigenous Peoples
and Cultural Presentations
• Welcome from Colonel Frank Lumsden of
the Charles Town Maroons
• Presentations and Panel Discussions on the
Economic Development Models in the
Cannabis Industry for Indigenous
Communities
• Food Demonstrations
• Entertainment
• PaneL on aLternatIVe heaLIng
“Commonalities in the healing
traditions in the Caribbean region:
some examples from the Lukumi
tradition”
– Ida Tafari, Ph.D., MPH, Barry
University, Anthropology and Nursing,
“Movement and Meditation:exploring
the Mind/Body Connection.”
– Khara Perkins-Chang, B.A. Florida
International University
“Cannabis healing”
Bret Bouge, Jamaica
“traditional healing”
Kim Douglas, Charles Town

12
T
he settler colonial history ofAustralia is known for its “secret
histories” around the brutal displacement ofAboriginal people
- the massacres, the rapes, the enslavement of Aboriginal
people and also the transportation of South Sea Islanders to be slaved
on the sugar plantations of North Queensland, for example. This
history has only been emerging over the last four decades.
What is also not commonly known is that Black Africans were in
Australia from the time of the First Fleet in 1788. This event is
commemorated as the time of the birth of modernAustralia, just as
Columbus Day is in the USA. What is known is that there were 11
convicts of African descent and another five who may have been
in this category amongst the 1000 or more convicts that were trans-
ported on this fleet. They arrived in Port Jackson, what is now
known as Sydney, and many of them stayed and raised families.
One was John Caesar, originally a servant from Madagascar who
is known as Australia’s first “bushranger”. He continually escaped
from custody, ranging around the edge of the settlement and was
often forced to come back in from hunger. He was extraordinarily
strong and defiant, withstanding the most cruel of whippings. He
was eventually shot for a bounty of five gallons of rum, after
approximately 10 years in the colony.
Black Loyalists
The majority of the Africans transported in the early period were
Black Loyalists who agreed to fight with the British in the North
American War of Independence in return for their freedom. After
this war many of them arrived in England penniless and in tough
times, finding themselves caught up in the extraordinarily
punishing convict system.
For example, a famous Sydney identity Billy Blue, who was the orig-
inal ferryman across the harbour, arrived in 1801. Also John Mosley
(from Virginia) John Randall and John Martin who arrived with the
First Fleet were Black Loyalists. John Martin married the daughter of
John Randall. These men were neighbours on their small farming
ventures in the west of Sydney harbour.AnotherAfrican by the name
ofAikenmarriedanotherdaughterofJohnMartin.Therearethousands
of descendants of these men inAustralia today.
Transportation of enslaved Africans
By far the largest single group of African men to be transported to
the colonies in Australia were from the Caribbean. Between 1788
and 1831 the followingAfricans whose origin was in Jamaica were
transported to Australia – James Roberts, Thomas Winter, Robert
Williams, Robert Camels, Phillip Rello, Thomas Biggs, William
Sherwood, James Williams, William Wright, Julius Campbell.
This occurred after 1808 with the abolition of the trade, up to 1838
when slavery was abolished in the British colonies.After the aboli-
tion of the trade in 1808, enslaved peoples were anxious for
freedom in their lifetime and became more rebellious.
Transportation became important as way of controlling enslaved
peoples in the many slave colonies of the British Empire.
The Scot historian Ian Duffield cites the example of Priscilla as a
means of understanding the mood amongst the slaved peoples of
the Caribbean at that time. In 1831 the Jamaican Priscilla was a
cook, housemaid and laundrymaid of about 25 years old who stood
under five feet high. She laced the food of the entire family of the
master with arsenic but was detected and transported for life for
this attempted poisoning. Priscilla found herself having to make a
new life in Australia.
The Montego Bay Rebels
In December 1831 60,000 enslaved people rose up against their
masters in the largest slave rebellion known in the British Empire
and were savagely crushed by January 1832. The historian
Cassandra Pybus has described the case of one of these men,
Alexander Simpson who was charged with “making use of sedi-
tious language, joining and engaging in conspiracy, traitorous,
rebellious or hostile acts against His Majesty’s government and
against the peace and safety of the island”. For this he was
sentenced to hang but this was commuted to transportation and he
arrived in Van Dieman’s Land (now Tasmania) in May 1833.
Once in Australia Simpson reported his crimes defiantly: “Mutiny
and exciting the slaves to rebellion. I was a slave myself”.
Duffield has identified other Montego Bay Rebels amongst
convicts transported to Australia – these include John McBean,
Richard Holt, Henry Gardiner, Robert Davis, Francis Smith, James
Miller Fine, Colin Campbell, James Gavin or Garvie and John
Tharpe. Also, Joseph Taylor, Joseph Butler Bonner, possibly
Richard Lambert, Robert Stewart and William Buchanan.
Free Jamaican blacks arrive in Australia
There are many examples of free blacks arriving in Australia. It is
claimed that my family is descended from one John Butler, said to
be creole, who arrived in Australia a free man from Jamaica. He
Jamaica Australia historical connections and the
Black diaspora in the Australian Pacific Region
Victoria Grieves

13
formed a family with Matilda, anAboriginal woman
from the Warraimay people on the south bank of the
Manning River near the present town of Taree in
New South Wales. This couple are my great great
grandparents.
One of the most notorious examples of a Jamaican
in Australia is that of Douglas Pitt Snr, born on 31
January 1844 in Kingston. He is now recognised as
the patriarch of an immense family in North
Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands in
Australia. Jeremy Hodes describes how Douglas Pitt
Snr had a career in the South Pacific, marrying a
woman in the Loyalty Island of Lifu who was the
daughter of a chief. He owned a hotel in Noumea
for some years and eventually arrived at Murray
Island in the Torres Strait in 1878. He had at least
eight children, and these children married into
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander as well as Pacific, Asian and
Malaysian families.
Pitt was a larger than life character who was a skipper in the beche-
de-mer trade with a crew of Pacific and Torres Strait Islanders.
A directive by the Chief Protector of Aboriginals disrupted what
had been a beneficial partnership between Douglas Pitt, his family
and the Torres Strait Islander people. These “protectors” existed in
every state and territory in Australia, essentially to police racial
boundaries, enforce racial segregation and ensure that the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had no opportunity to
manage their own lives.
On 3 November 1916 an advice was issued that Pitt senior and his
sons were not permitted to reside on any Aboriginal reserve in
Torres Strait or recruit Torres Strait Islander men to work in their
industry. They did not leave willingly.
The Protector received repeated requests to from Douglas’son Ned
Pitt to return to the Torres Strait, requests that were not granted, as
he was considered to be “an undesirable.” In spite of this legal inter-
vention into their lives, family members defied the ban. Douglas
Snr’s son William visited Murray Island in 1919, leaving his son
there, while his brother Edward Pitt also returned to Torres Strait
in that year.
The firstAboriginal person to be commissioned as an officer in the
Australian Army, Captain Reginald Saunders, was also descended
from a grandfather who arrived in Australia as a free man from
Jamaica. Also with the name of Saunders, he made a home with
the Gunditjmara people in western Victoria, marrying into this
group and spending the rest of his days there.
The Jamaican legacy in Australia
There is a great need for more research to be done about the
Jamaicans who came toAustralia during
colonial times and a greater under-
standing of their heritage and legacy that
exists here. Many people of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander descent are
alsoAfrican. We are proud of this link to
Africa.
More recent African migrants to
Australia for example, find it important
to know that there is a history of African
people in Australia from the very First
Fleet. It is also important to know that
these people have often had close ties
and connections with Aboriginal, Torres
Strait Islander and South Sea Islander
peoples here, have been incorporated
into their families. They have shared the burdens and the struggles
of the Indigenous people of Australia who live perilous lives in a
settler colonial regime marked by mass child removals, incarcera-
tions and deaths in custody.
References:
Duffield, Ian (1986) “From Slave Colonies to Penal Colonies:
the West Indian Convict Transportees to Australia”
Slavery and Abolition: a Jouranl of Slave and Post-Slave
Studies, 7:1. 25 – 40.
Gordon, Harry (1965) The embarrassing Australian: the story of
an Aboriginal warrior, 2nd ed. Melbourne, Cheshire
Lansdowne.
Hodes, Jeremy Martin (1998) “Torres Strait Islander Migration to
Cairns before World War II” Unpublished M. Litt.
Dissertation
http://queenslandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2011_03_01_a
rchive.html accessed 12 March 2015.
Pybus, Cassandra (2001) “A touch of the tar: African settlers in
Colonial Australia and the implications for the issues of
Aboriginality” London Papers in Australian Studies No
3, Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, London.
Dr Victoria Grieves is Warraimay from
the mid north coast of NSW, Australia.
An historian, her research interests are
focussed on race and intersections with
gender and class in the Aboriginal
family in all of its complexity, including
connections to people from across the
globe. Vicki is deeply engaged with
transdisciplinarity and approaches to
knowledge production that privilege
Indigenous knowledges.
Captain Reg Saunders

14
Conference Flashback...
Capoeira presenter
Section of the crowd in attendance.
Taino delegation led by Kasike Roberto Borrero during the
Call to the Sacred.
Induction of the GA AMA in 2014 Presentation in the Museum
(Above) Three-dimensional
Mural in the Asafu Yard,
created by Col. Frank
Lumsden depicts the
Maroon struggle.
(Right) Sankofa Bird
emblazoned on the
Museum doors.
Art in Asafu YardArt in Asafu Yard
For more information contact:
Tel: 1 (876) 445 2861

15
T
he hidden story of White Australia’s Black
history is also delicately etched across the mind
and spirit of people of colour from around the
world. Our dark and shared experiences of a harsh, all-
encompassing colonial regime ignites a burning passion
deep within us all, that works to forge a global Black
Consciousness that connects us. United by our shared
disdain for the misery of oppression and a fighting spirit
for justice, Black people become amalgamated globally
by a shared humanity that allows us to confront the pain
of racism and cruel adversity.
White Australia has many hidden layers of Black in it,
including those stories of people of African and
Caribbean descent as well as Aboriginal, Torres Strait
Islander and South Sea Islander peoples.
The domineering histories of a
patriarchal White Australia have
not only successfully written out
the stories of brutal coercion into
slavery in its history books, but
also importantly the central and
active roles of Africans and other
members of the global African
diaspora in the First Nations
peoples pursuit for freedom and
justice in Australia – as well as
the Australian Indigenous
peoples fight for global justice
for all black people.
Afro Caribbean, African
American, Africans and other
Blacks have remained active and
supportive of the Indigenous
peoples fight for freedom and
social justice in Australia.
Aboriginal Australia has long-
standing socio-political connec-
tions to the global Black diaspora, which has been and
still remains a central facet in the shaping our nation’s
story. Sadly these chapters of the Nation’s narrative
have largely been excluded from its history pages.
I am the daughter of a West African, Ghanaian father,
who married my mother, an Aboriginal, Torres Strait
Islander woman, from the Kukuyalanji people of far
North Queensland and who is also of South Sea
Islander descent. It is through my Torres Strait Islander
heritage that I also hold bloodlines to Jamaica as a
descendant of the freed Jamaican Douglas Pitt, born on
31 January 1844 in Kingston.
My father migrated to Sydney Australia in the late
1970s, an era in this country that welcomed not only
what is known as the assimilation era, brought about by
the end of the White Australia
Policy, but an emerging Black
cultural renaissance notable in
the city streets of Sydney,
Melbourne, Brisbane,
Adelaide, Perth and Darwin in
Australia. This period of time
saw the revitalisation of a local
Black consciousness move-
ment, exploring the terrains of
a “new” Black diversity with
the influx of African migrants,
and a resurgent political resist-
ance as was the case in Black
America at this time.
The 1970s in Australia saw
young Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander activists and
their supporters develop a Tent
Embassy in the front of
Parliament House in protest at
not being treated as citizens of
Reflections on being an
African Aboriginal in White Australia
- which by the way, has many hidden layers of Black in it!
Kaiya Aboagye
Kaiya Aboagye, her cousin Shola Diop and her son
Jawarn Aboagye pictured at a recent protest in Sydney.

16
this country. It saw them fight for the end of apartheid
in South Africa through laying their bodies on the line
to oppose the Springbok tours to this country. Each step
of their protests were met by unrestrained police
brutality. Some activists visited the Black Panthers in
the USA and came back to build community organisa-
tions to provide much needed services for the people.
What is particular in this case however is the nature by
which Black people responded to each other and
engaged with political campaigns and importantly the
family formations that brought together a space for
Indigenous Australians to occupy alongside other
people of colour from the Black diaspora. I am a direct
product of the socio-historic cultural renaissance and
this article responds to this legacy as an international
and transnational connection between Black people
across time and space, united by the fight for freedom
in a context of ongoing racism and injustice.
Importantly, I embody a history of slavery through all
four groups that I am descended from. The common
thread linking these groups is the burning experience
of the institution of slavery and the common experi-
ences of oppression that unite people of colour around
the world. We live within transgenerational trauma that
is now made more complex by continuing policies of
racism and oppression. The impact has also been to
create ways for thinking about the world and knowing
the impacts of world colonialism through a particular
lens: the lens of the young blackAfricanAboriginal that
naturally understands the global sweep of oppression.
We may wear different clothes and speak in different
languages, but there is a common thread to the suffering
of our peoples. We are all part of a global Black
community of coloured peoples spanning the planet;
this is the knowing, the Indigenous knowledges, that
connect us.
We know of the sweep of global Black histories and the
raw, material realities that tell the same narratives of
poverty, repression and resilience. We recognise our
own families and see the same faces: we see ourselves
in these stories. This is the nature of our lives that enun-
ciates our spirit as Black people, experiencing the same
problems and struggling against the same alienation,
marginalisation and sense of powerlessness.
This transnational consciousness so evident in
Australia, shines in the richest shade of Black,
colouring the very heart and nature of our Global Black
diaspora. Our rich and deeply complex histories, the
deeply connected stories, reclaim our right to Black
identity and key ideals of Black consciousness. This is
the most urgent project of decolonisation for our young
people of colour around the world today. It is absolutely
imperative and central that we unite globally and extend
ourselves out into the world around us.
Subscribing to an Indigenous way of being, relating to
the principles found in the Black consciousness arising,
translates to a subscribing of the ideas and shared
values of welcoming others. A key strength of Black
communities is that our doors are always open to
everyone. We value community, strength in collectively
and productivity through peace and unity that we can
actively create, and live our lives well. The shared
cultural values of our peoples must guide all that we do,
including across the seas, the waterways, the air we
breathe, and the good earth and guidance left to us by
our ancestors.
With a good heart and a good mind we must seek out
our global Black brothers and sisters and recognise the
good fight we fight together. The beginning is with us,
in the hearts and the minds of our own Black people.
Kaiya Aboagye is Kukuyalanji
from far north Queensland,
Australia. She is also of African,
Torres Strait Islanderand South
Sea Islander descent. She is
currently the Project Officer
developing the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Research
Portfolio in the Office of the DVC
Research at the University of
Sydney. Kaiya is enrolling in a HDR program where
she will more fully explore the issues raised in this
opinion piece.

17
Y
aamagara Nginda, Ngalay Ngiyaningu, ngiyaningu guliyaan
dhiyaan Gamilaraay buruwi-y, Ngarri-y ngaragay bulayrr
Ngiyaningu Dhuwi ngaragay Gii -Ga ngiyaningu yanguuwii.
Ngiyaningu maran gaay, yugal ngaragay yulu-gi garrawa-li ngay mari
dhawun ngaragay -DHi nhalay ngiyani galuma-li ngiyaningu mari
nhama dhawun, bagay, dhii ngaragay nhama GAMILU BIDI-WII.
Ngiyaningu WII yilaadhu nhalay nhama dhuuraay nhama yaliwunga
garrawa-li ngiyaninya Gamilaraay Mari -gu-Ga GAMILU BIDI-WII.
Yilaadhu nginaayngu dhiyaan marrabaa -Ga ngiyaningu gurru -Ga
dhiirra-li ngiyaningu gaay, yugal ngaragay yulu-gi.
*ENGLISH TRANSLATION*
W
elcome how are you, our new sprit family, this our
Gamilaraay. Rest, sit and warm your soul and heart at our
sacred fire.
Our ancestors stories, songs and dances keep my people grounded and
from this we care for our people the land, rivers, animals and the
universe.
Our fires are the light that always keep us Gamilaraay People belonging
in GAMILU BIDI-WI - BEFORE THE BIG LIGHT/CREATION
ITSELF.
Now your family, welcomed in our circle to teach/learn our stories,
songs and dances.
Winanga-li Gii (to teach/learn from the
heart). Paul Spearim has been
imparting the cultural knowledge of the
Gamilaraay Nation through song,
dance and storytelling for more than 40
years. Within the Gamilaraay Nation
the process that is used to pass on
Gamilaraay cultural knowledge is
unique. Each process is interconnected
and is as important as the next to the
overall creation story Dhiriya Gamil,
and our existence as descendants of
Gamilaraay.
GAMILARAAY LANGUAGE

18
The Child is Alive
And a niece of granny Nanny
an Akan woman, a woman who can see far,
a woman with the knowledge of herbs
a woman who works in the field, cutting cane
a woman who speaks the language of her grandmothers
a woman who tells stories of magical animals, of talking
trees, and of fabled cities beneath mighty rivers
a woman who was stolen from her village
hen she was 14
a woman who was raped on the slave ship
by a white sailor
a woman who flies to Africa when she sleeps
This woman, this niece of granny Nanny
take her cutlass and runs with the swiftness
of Sogolon Conde in her guise as Buffalo woman
this woman runs with her machete
an ancient chant rising from her throat
an ancient chant imploring the God and all the
spirits that attend women in childbirth to come
to her aid
She calls her companions:
“form a circle around the dead woman
breathe, breathe deeply, give her breath,
give her life.”
This woman, this niece of granny Nanny enters
the cirle and with her cutlass,
the ancient chant leaping from her lips,
cuts opens the belly of the woman
and releases the child
while her companions hum and chant softly.
Oh praise to the ancestors!
the child is alive
oh Onyame, take the spirit of the mother*
praise to the ancestors,
in the midst of misery and pain
in the midst of humiliation and grief
in the midst of this inhumanity
praise to the ancestors the child lives
oh Onyame, take the spirit of the mother
This woman, this niece of granny Nanny,
this ancient midwife
dances with the child, backward, forward, sideward
spins and joins her companions dancing
like the priestess she would have been
had not slavers stolen her away
from her people
the woman dances
east
south
west
north
she holds the child up to the sky
blessings
Oh praise to the ancestors
the child lives
oh Onyame, take the spirit of the mother
oh praise to the ancestors
the child is alive!
Woye! woye! woye!
Afua Cooper, Ph.D.
James R. Johnston Endowed
Black Studies Professor
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Canada
The following poem is inspired by the birth scene in the film Sankofa. A pregnant woman runs away. She is caught
and taken back to the plantation. For her punishment she is given 100 lashes. The woman dies, her belly bulging in
front of her. A midwife on the plantation decides to deliver the child from the dead woman.
The Child is Alive
Afua Cooper, Ph.D.

19
T
he French missionary Raymond Breton, who arrived
in the Lesser Antilles in 1635, and lived on
Guadeloupe and Dominica until 1653, took ethno-
graphic and linguistic notes of the native peoples of these
islands, including St Vincent which he visited only briefly.
According to oral history noted by the English governor
William Young in 1795 Carib-speaking people of the
Orinoco came to St. Vincent long before the arrival of
Europeans to the New World, where they subdued the local
inhabitants called Galibeis. They lived along with the Carib
men. Young recorded the arrival of the African descended
population as commencing with a wrecked slave ship from
the Bight of Biafra in 1675. The survivors, members of the
Mokko people of today's Nigeria (now known as Ibibio),
reached the small island of Bequia, where the Caribs brought
them to Saint Vincent and intermarried with them by
supplying theAfrican men with wives as it was taboo in their
society for men to go unwed.
The Carib Expulsion was the French-led ethnic cleansing
that terminated most of the Carib population in 1660 from
present-day Martinique. This followed the French invasion
in 1635 and its conquest of the people on the Caribbean
island that made it part of the French colonial empire.
The Carib people had migrated from the mainland to the
islands about 1200, according to carbon dating of artifacts.
They largely displaced, exterminated and assimilated the
Taino who were resident on the island at the time.[3]
In 1635 the Caribs were overwhelmed in turn by French
forces led by the adventurer Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc and
his nephew Jacques Dyel du Parquet, who imposed French
colonial rule on the indigenous Carib peoples. Cardinal
Richelieu of France gave the island to the Saint Christophe
Company, in which he was a shareholder. Later the company
was reorganized as the Company of the American Islands.
The French colonists imposed French Law on the conquered
inhabitants, and Jesuit missionaries arrived to convert them
to the Roman Catholic Church.[4]
Because the Carib people resisted working as laborers to
build and maintain the sugar and cocoa plantations which
the French began to develop in the Caribbean, in 1636 King
Louis XIII proclaimed La Traite des Noirs. This authorized
the capture and purchase of slaves from Africa and their
transportation as labor to Martinique and other parts of the
French West Indies.[3]
In 1650, the Company liquidated, selling Martinique to
Jacques Dyel du Parquet, who became governor, a position
he held until his death in 1658. His widow Mme. du Parquet
next took over control of the island from France. As more
French colonists arrived, they were attracted to the fertile
area known as Cabesterre (leeward side). The French had
pushed the remaining Carib people to this northeastern coast
and the Caravalle Peninsula, but the colonists wanted the
additional land. The Jesuits and the Dominicans agreed that
whichever order arrived there first, would get all future
parishes in that part of the island. The Jesuits came by sea
and the Dominicans by land, with the Dominicans' ulti-
mately prevailing.
When the Carib revolted against French rule in 1660, the
Governor Charles Houel sieur de Petit Pré retaliated with
war against them. Many were killed; those who survived
were taken captive and expelled from the island.
On Martinique, the French colonists signed a peace treaty
with the few remaining Carib. Some Carib had fled to
Dominica and St. Vincent, where the French agreed to leave
them at peace.
Britain and France both laid conflicting claims on Saint
Vincent from the late seventeenth century onward. French
pioneers began informally cultivating plots on the island
around 1710 and in 1719 the governor of Martinique sent a
force to occupy it, but was repulsed by the inhabitants. A
British attempt in 1723 was also repelled.[5] In 1748, Britain
and France agreed to put aside their claims and Saint Vincent
was declared a neutral island, under no European sover-
eign.[6] Throughout this period, however, unofficial, mostly
French settlement took place on the island, especially on the
Leeward side.
In 1763, the Treaty of Paris awarded Britain rule over Saint
Vincent. After a series of Carib Wars, which were encour-
aged and supported by the French, and the death of their
leader Satuye (Chatoyer), they surrendered to the British in
1796. The British considered the Garinagu enemies and
deported them to Roatán, an island off the coast of Honduras.
In the process, the British separated the more African-
looking Caribs from the more Amerindian-looking ones.
They decided that the former were enemies who had to be
exiled, while the latter were merely "misled" and were
allowed to remain. Five thousand Garinagu were exiled, but
GARIFUNA PEOPLE - A short history

20
only about 2,500 of them survived the voyage to Roatán.
Because the island was too small and infertile to support
their population, the Garifuna petitioned the Spanish author-
ities to be allowed to settle on the mainland. The Spanish
employed them, and they spread along the Caribbean coast
of Central America.
In recent history, Garifuna have thrown off their British
appellation and encourage others to refer to them as
Garifuna. The Garifuna population is estimated to be around
600,000 both in Central America, Yurumein (St. Vincent and
The Grenadines), and the United States of America. The
latter, due to heavy migration from Central America, has
become the second largest hub of Garifuna people outside
Central America. New York has the largest population,
heavily dominated by Hondurans, Guatemalans and
Belizeans. Los Angeles ranks second with Honduran
Garifuna being the most populous, followed by Belizeans
and Guatemalans. There is no information regarding
Garifuna from Nicaragua having migrated to either the East
or the West Coast of the United States. The Nicaraguan
Garifuna population of today is quite small and community
leaders are attempting to resurrect the Garifuna language and
cultural traditions.
Three Diasporas: the African diaspora, the
Garifuna diaspora, and the Central
American diaspora
The distinction between diaspora and transnational migra-
tion is that diaspora implies the dispersal of a people from a
homeland, whether voluntarily or through exile, to multiple
nation-states rather than the bilocality generally associated
with transnational migration. In addition, in contrast to the
more intense contact transmigrants have with their country
of origin, diasporic populations often have a more tenuous
relationship to the "homeland" or society of origin because
there is little hope of return; the relationship is more remote,
or even imagined.[7] Garifuna peoples materialize on the
Caribbean island of St. Vincent, exiled to the Caribbean
coasts of Central America, and then transmigrant to the
United States. For Garífuna, the politics of diaspora are
complex because they have several different homelands and
different relationships to them: from the mainly symbolic
relationship to Africa and St. Vincent to the more immediate
relationship to Central America. The specific form the iden-
tification with each homeland takes has different political
implications. Tracing the processes of this identification and
the politics attached to them reveals the intersection of local,
national, and transnational processes as well as the
complexity of Garifuna identity in diaspora and the global
arena of ethnic politics.
Retreived from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garifuna_people
References
1. Post Rust, Susie. "Fishing villages along Central America's
coast pulse with the joyous rhythms of this Afro-Caribbean
people.". National Geographic. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
2. "2005 American Community Survey: Race and Hispanic or
Latino". U.S. Census Bureau. 2000. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
3. Sweeney, James L. (2007). "Caribs, Maroons, Jacobins,
Brigands, and Sugar Barons: The Last Stand of the Black
Caribs on St. Vincent", African Diaspora Archaeology
Network, March 2007, retrieved 26 April 2007
4. "Institutional History of Martinique", Martinique Official site,
French Government (translation by Maryanne Dassonville).
Retrieved 26 April 2007
5. Young, Black Charaibs, pp. 12–13.
6. Young, Black Charaibs, p. 4.
7. Anderson, Mark. "Black Indigenism: The Making of Ethnic
Politics and State Multiculturalism", Black and Indigenous:
Garifuna Activism and Consumer Culture in Honduras.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009: 136.
Highlights of the Annual International Maroon Conference include nature hikes,
traditional food demonstrations and a dip in the nearby river

The Charles Town drummers and dancers have been working
together since 1997. The gathering began under a big guinep tree
where the group would drum and dance around a big tree that
was lit, they would sing for hours. In 1990, members of the group
went to Ghana and visited with the ‘Quao people’. In that same
year the Asafu Yard was established and the Quao people came
to our first celebration which took place from June 19-20, where
we honor Jamaica’s Quao, our ancestors and strengthened the
bond with the maroons in Africa.
In 2007, delegation went back to Africa with three of the original
members in attendance. In 2009 a group of ten went to Canada
for a tour of Ottowa, Halifax, and Toronto. The Jamaican flag was
raised in Canada for the first time by the maroons.
The group has performed all around Jamaica, performing at
schools and family gatherings. The group was also joined by the
Edna Manley College School of Dance and created two dance
dramas - “Affana” and “Return from Sambo Hill”. Today we heal
entertain and educate locals and tourists at various events.
Marcia “Kim” Douglas
Charles Town Drummers
and Dancers

Carried out with the support of the UNESCO Offices
in Havana and Kingston
UNESCO Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean is
proud to associate and partner with Colonel Frank
Lumsden and Charles Town Maroon Council on the
occasion of Quao’s Day during the 7th Annual International
Maroon Conference under the theme “Maroon, Indigenous
Peoples and Indigeneity”. The support of UNESCO to this
event is within the framework of the 2007 United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples for
the recognition, promotion and protection of the rights,
freedoms and cultures of indigenous peoples, such as the
Maroons of Jamaica. UNESCO is strongly committed to
advancing the cultures and rights of the indigenous
peoples of the world.

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