Village day activities planned in Orealla to observe Indigenous Heritage Month

By Royan Abrams

Residents of Orealla and neighbouring Siparuta have planned a number of activities to observe Indigenous Heritage Month 2016.

Among activities planned is a Village day which will be hosted on September 24, 2016. Organised by the Amerindian Council of Orealla, the Village day will comprise of a number of activities to showcase the Amerindian’s culture, their food and languages.

During the celebration, residents from the two Amerindian communities along with visitors from outside of the region will engage in various events including a boat race, tug-of-war, cassava bread eating, chopping of wood among a host of other indigenous activities.

The Regional Chairman, David Armogan highlighted that “there is a lot of thing peculiar to Amerindian living and it’s quite nice to see how they operate and in the night. They have quite a number of people from Suriname and other places that would visit the area to be apart of the celebration” as he encouraged persons to visit the village.

The Month of September was designated as Indigenous Heritage Month by the late President, Dr Cheddi Jagan to recognize the role of Amerindians toward Guyana’s development.

It also coincides with the day Guyana had its first Amerindian parliamentarian admitted to parliament in the month of September.

Indigenous Heritage Month 2016 is being hosted under the theme “Our culture, earth’s future, Save the environment, live the indigenous way.”