Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine chal­lenged To­bag­o­ni­ans to leave an in­deli­ble mark on the na­tion and to con­tin­ue their rest­less fight for To­ba­go to thrive dur­ing the To­ba­go Day awards cer­e­mo­ny on Mon­day night.

Speak­ing at the To­ba­go Day Awards at the Shaw Park Cul­tur­al Com­plex Au­gus­tine said those on the is­land must not take for grant­ed the sac­ri­fices made in the past. He al­so urged them to pre­pare for those yet to come.

He said, “The most im­por­tant piece of the puz­zle in de­vel­op­ment (of) this lit­tle is­land will be greater au­ton­o­my as we cel­e­brate the an­niver­sary of the in­au­gu­ra­tion of the mod­ern To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly to­day. It is in­deed an op­por­tune mo­ment for us to think crit­i­cal­ly about the as­sem­bly’s fu­ture and its evo­lu­tion. The self-gov­er­nance we present­ly en­joy hinges up­on the de­ter­mi­na­tion of oth­er brave To­bag­o­ni­ans of the past.”

Au­gus­tine ap­plaud­ed all 28 awardees for find­ing a way to make a mas­sive im­pact through small ef­forts over the last decade.

Even with all the is­land’s achieve­ments, Au­gus­tine said there is more work to be done and To­bag­o­ni­ans must be ready to em­brace the dis­com­fort that will come with change.

“We must al­so be­come com­fort­able with deeply chal­leng­ing our­selves and stretch­ing be­yond our pre­vi­ous­ly held lim­its. It will call for hard work. It will de­mand that we dig deep­er than we ever have be­fore. Still, I hope and pray that we as To­bag­o­ni­ans are bold enough to ful­ly em­brace the dis­com­fort,” he said.

Lord Nel­son and Pan Trin­ba­go Pres­i­dent Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore were among six To­bag­o­ni­ans who re­ceived the To­ba­go Medal of Ho­n­our Gold. While 21 oth­ers were award­ed the sil­ver and bronze Medal of Ho­n­our.

Net­ball coach, Ky­la Kei­th-Wil­son re­ceived the Chief Sec­re­tary’s Award for Out­stand­ing Con­tri­bu­tion and Sig­nif­i­cant Achieve­ment in Sport.