Yvonne Webb

Twen­ty-two years ago Ju­nior Bis­nath carved out the words of the Na­tion­al An­them on a five-foot piece of samaan wood, in ded­i­ca­tion to its com­pos­er Patrick Stanis­laus Castagne, bet­ter known as Pat. As the coun­try cel­e­brates its 50th an­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence on Au­gust 31, Bis­nath wants to give this gift to T&T, to have it placed at the South Na­tion­al Acad­e­my of the Per­form­ing Arts (SAPA), when it is opened. The San Fer­nan­do res­i­dent says he will make a re­quest to Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Min­is­ter Dr Lin­coln Dou­glas for his work of art to be promi­nent­ly dis­played.

Many of his unique pieces have been giv­en to dig­ni­taries, both home and abroad, in­clud­ing the So­ca War­riors, the late Whit­ney Hous­ton and her aunt Dionne War­wick. He and his moko jumbies will al­so fea­ture in the Nic­ki Mi­naj video for her new al­bum Pound the Alarm, which was shot in Bel­mont last week. Bis­nath ex­plained that back in 1990, he was in­spired to do an al­bum of liv­ing leg­ends, such as Black Stal­in, Broth­er Re­sis­tance, ex­tem­po artiste Abebele, among oth­ers. He carved out the words of their songs on wood. He said when he re­alised Castagne was still alive, he de­cid­ed to add him to the liv­ing leg­ends al­bum. "I went to the li­brary to see what he looked like and so I could do a carv­ing of him in the art­work to be dis­played at the Prime Min­is­ter Best Vil­lage Folk Fair that year.

"I al­so got his con­tact num­ber and in­vit­ed him to the fair. He ar­rived at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah around 9 am that day and while we were look­ing at the carv­ing, the Folk Fair was de­clared open and they start­ed play­ing the Na­tion­al An­them." He said at the same time, a pho­tog­ra­ph­er em­ployed with the gov­ern­ment ser­vice was pass­ing by and was per­suad­ed to take a pic­ture of him (Bis­nath), Mac Fos­ter Joseph and Castagne with the carv­ing. "I did not know this pho­to­graph would turn out to be such a trea­sure to­day," Bis­nath said of the black and while glossy pho­to­graph which he has kept in pris­tine con­di­tion.

"I have wait­ed for many years for a mu­se­um in San Fer­nan­do to put this art­work. It is at my home, but I pre­fer it is in a pub­lic place where all can see it. That is why I want to do­nate it as a gift to the na­tion, to be placed in the south NA­PA build­ing, when­ev­er it is opened," Bis­nath said.