Jonathan Bha­gan

With dis­cus­sions of lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form and chang­ing mu­nic­i­pal bound­aries, I want to raise the is­sue of the rights of the First Peo­ples to self-gov­ern­ment and self-de­ter­mi­na­tion. I spoke to two ma­jor lead­ers of the First Peo­ples’ com­mu­ni­ties in T&T, and they both agree there is a need for in­de­pen­dent lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tion for the First Peo­ples.

Spe­cif­ic al­der­men cho­sen from among the de­scen­dants of the First Peo­ples’ com­mu­ni­ty could ad­vo­cate for their in­ter­ests and sit on com­mit­tees that help de­vel­op tourism in­fra­struc­ture to pro­mote in­dige­nous arts and cul­ture.

While the may­ors of Ari­ma and San Fer­nan­do have made ef­forts to reach out to the First Peo­ples com­mu­ni­ty, at present, there is no week­ly con­sul­ta­tion with In­dige­nous lead­ers. Hav­ing of­fi­cial al­der­men in­stalled would en­sure rep­re­sen­ta­tion for the First Peo­ples on every is­sue.

Speak­ing with Chief Ri­car­do Bharath Her­nan­dez, a for­mer Ari­ma coun­cil­lor who served for 18 years, he said, “I be­came a lo­cal gov­ern­ment coun­cil­lor with the in­ter­est of ad­vanc­ing the cause of the First Peo­ples. I would pre­fer if there were an in­de­pen­dent po­si­tion. In my ex­pe­ri­ence, be­ing in lo­cal gov­ern­ment did help the First Peo­ples, but there are lim­i­ta­tions. I al­so be­lieve a com­mit­tee at the lev­el of the rel­e­vant min­istry is need­ed to build the tourism prod­uct and pre­serve the First Peo­ples’ cul­ture. The de­vel­op­ment of First Peo­ples goes be­yond po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion.”

Chief Her­nan­dez al­so be­lieves that the Port-of-Spain and Tu­na­puna cor­po­ra­tions should have First Peo­ples’ rep­re­sen­ta­tion.

“Re­mem­ber the Red House is lo­cat­ed on a his­tor­i­cal Amerindi­an set­tle­ment and the bones of First Peo­ples were found there and rein­terred in a tomb on the Red House grounds,” he said.

I al­so reached out to Caci­ca Or­tan­cia Ben­jamin (Jr. Chieft­ess), who stat­ed, “It is im­por­tant to have an in­dige­nous voice in the an­nu­al seat­ing may­or’s meet­ings, as this shows recog­ni­tion and in­clu­sion of de­sign mak­ings when it comes to com­mu­ni­ty. As in­dige­nous iden­ti­ty is not po­lit­i­cal, our main goal is to serve the peo­ple. Most of the is­sues that are over­looked, the in­dige­nous com­mu­ni­ty holds these sit­u­a­tions at heart to the ex­tent that end­less char­i­ty work is car­ried out for those who are in need of as­sis­tance. The Warao Na­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go com­mu­ni­ties are made up of San Fer­nan­do, Siparia, Pa­lo Seco and Ica­cos. I strong­ly be­lieve that the in­clu­sion of in­dige­nous voice should be in­clud­ed, such as Part­ners for First Peo­ples De­vel­op­ment, San­ta Rosa First Peo­ple and Warao Na­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go should have a place with­in the ta­ble for these meet­ings. It shows the ma­tu­ri­ty and will­ing­ness for growth of our coun­try. In­dige­nous voic­es go in­to depth on stand­ing up for com­mu­ni­ties to speak for is­sues that may be over­looked.”

The San­ta Rosa First Peo­ples Com­mu­ni­ty of Ari­ma com­pris­es de­scen­dants of the Nepuyo tribe, who are iden­ti­fied as Kali­na­go (Carib) in ori­gin. The year­ly San­ta Rosa fes­ti­val is tied to the First Peo­ples and is per­haps the old­est con­tin­u­ous­ly cel­e­brat­ed feast in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Na­pari­ma Hill in San Fer­nan­do is an­oth­er First Peo­ples her­itage site. Siparia’s Ban­wari Trace Ar­chae­o­log­i­cal Site in Siparia, south­west Trinidad, is one of the old­est known in­dige­nous set­tle­ments in the Caribbean, dat­ing back 7,000 years.

This rich his­to­ry is part of T&T’s cul­tur­al and tourism of­fer­ing and could be used to di­ver­si­fy our econ­o­my. First Peo­ples tourist sites in Ari­ma, San Fer­nan­do and Siparia could draw mil­lions of dol­lars per year in tourism rev­enue if prop­er­ly de­vel­oped and ad­ver­tised.

As a de­scen­dant of the Ari­ma First Peo­ples my­self, I have reg­u­lar­ly ad­vo­cat­ed for the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law to be ac­tu­alised to al­low recog­ni­tion and some form of self-gov­er­nance among the First Peo­ples com­mu­ni­ty.

The 2007 UN De­c­la­ra­tion on the Rights of In­dige­nous Peo­ples (UN­DRIP) was adopt­ed by the UN Gen­er­al As­sem­bly, with 144 na­tions, in­clud­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go, vot­ing in favour of the doc­u­ment. Ar­ti­cle 3 of the UN­DRIP states that “In­dige­nous peo­ple have the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion. By virtue of that right, they freely pur­sue their eco­nom­ic, so­cial and cul­tur­al de­vel­op­ment.” Ar­ti­cle 4 al­so deals with self-de­ter­mi­na­tion and states that “In­dige­nous peo­ple in ex­er­cis­ing their right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion have the right to au­ton­o­my or self-gov­ern­ment in mat­ters re­lat­ing to their in­ter­nal and lo­cal af­fairs, as well as means of fi­nanc­ing their au­tonomous func­tions.”

The right to au­ton­o­my and self-gov­ern­ment is usu­al­ly in­ter­pret­ed as al­low­ing in­dige­nous forms of gov­ern­ment and set­tle­ments of dis­putes. Giv­en the small size of the Ari­ma, Siparia and San Fer­nan­do First Peo­ples com­mu­ni­ties, it would be dif­fi­cult to set up self-gov­ern­ing reser­va­tions.

In the con­text of T&T, the right to self-gov­ern­ment may be best ac­tu­alised by a spe­cif­ic First Peo­ples rep­re­sen­ta­tive es­tab­lished in the Ari­ma, San Fer­nan­do and Siparia Cor­po­ra­tions un­der an amend­ment to the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions Act.

En­shrin­ing lo­cal gov­ern­ment First Peo­ples lead­er­ship po­si­tions in statute would hope­ful­ly lead to de­vel­op­ing in­dige­nous com­mu­ni­ties and cul­ture to be­come a vi­able tourism prod­uct that earns mil­lions of dol­lars in for­eign ex­change.