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Safeguarding Activated!

Update- July 24,2024: Additional funds allocated to the Precision Centre’s ICH Book Project

“The 2003 UNESCO Convention for Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage has now been activated!”

These were the words with which Antigua and Barbuda’s UNESCO National Commission’s Secretary-General, Dr. Reginald Murphy, greeted the June 20th handover of a cheque valued at EC 10,159.85 to the Precision Centre.

The funds will go towards the publication of the Precision Centre’s book on the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of Antigua and Barbuda. The book’s publication is being funded under Antigua and Barbuda’s UNESCO ICH Fund-sponsored project. The national project is being led by Cultural Advisor, Dr. Hazra Medica, with assistance from Dr. Murphy.

Smiles all around (and a bold foot forward) as Dr. Hazra Medica and Dr. Murphy present the EC 10,159.85 cheque to Administrator Mrs. Alicia Cornelius.

The Precision Centre, located in Piggotts, is a faith-based organisation with an excellent track record of ICH safeguarding initiatives at the community level— the most recognised being their production of thirteen (13) short documentaries on Antiguan cultural heritage; twelve (12) village-based, and one (1) general ICH documentary.

These documentaries form the basis of the Centre’s flagship venture, the “Antiguanization Project”. The planned book will be based on the contents of the Centre’s general ICH documentary.

Under the Antigua and Barbuda ICH project, the Centre will publish, and distribute 2,000 free copies of its ICH book to school libraries, the National Library, the National Archives, community centres, and other select institutions and individuals. 

A delighted Mrs. Alicia Cornelius, Administrator of the Precision Centre, received the cheque on the Centre’s behalf.

“Since we learnt of the availability of the funds last week, we began our initial conversations of putting things in place. We have since made contact with the possible publisher and have received a revised quotation from them,” Cornelius revealed. 

According to her, with funds now in hand, “the team will continue to collaborate and work towards completing the project within the time allotted”.

Project Manager, Dr. Medica, echoed Mrs. Cornelius’ delight noting that the presentation of the funds to the Precision Centre was a long time coming:

“In 2018, the Precision Centre submitted its compelling proposal to us for inclusion in the larger national ICH project. In 2020, the nation secured US$ 97,754, / EC$ 264,185.07 in funding from the highly competitive UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund for our 19-month-long project.

We suffered delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and there were even further delays due to circumstances beyond our control. But now, we are, happily, getting back on track, and this presentation of hard-fought-for funds to the Precision Centre is a part of that!”

For his part, Dr. Murphy asserted that the Centre’s book will be “a major contribution to the safeguarding and enrichment of our cultural heritage” and congratulated the Centre for “their dedication and commitment”.

Over the coming months, the public will be kept updated on the progress of both the Precision Centre’s book as well as the larger ICH project.

To learn more about the Precision Centre, click here. For a glimpse at the Centre’s “Antiguanization Project,” click here.

For details on Antigua and Barbuda’s ICH project, please click here.

 Next week, the first call will be posted for interested people to sign up to be a part of the project.

 

Look We! – #2

Join us over the course of this year for our “Look We!” series as we spotlight familiar, and perhaps not so familiar, sights and sounds of Antigua and Barbuda, and publish updates on the Antigua and Barbuda ICH Project.

In this second edition of Look We!, we take a glimpse into Antigua and Barbuda’s boatbuilding tradition. By now, the word is out that our ICH project includes a tradition-inspired boatbuilding component. So, join us on a jaunt down memory lane and a trip to Urlings/ “round South” for a conversation (video) with traditional boatbuilder, Mr. Alford Cochrane.

Among other things, listen out for: the key role that family played in the transmission of skills and knowledge, names of boats of yesteryear; and, naturally, a very brief mention of the Point vs South boatbuilders’ rivalry.

Look We #2 Conversation with an Antiguan and Barbudan Traditional Boatbuilder

Look out for the third edition of Look We! Also, feel free to suggest topics or submit your photos or video clips for future editions of Look We!

A&B’s ICH PROJECT

Exciting times are ahead!  By January’s end, Antigua and Barbuda will be launching a first-of-its-kind mammoth project that will inventory, promote, and safeguard important elements of our cultural heritage.  

Cultural Advisor and the project’s manager, Dr. Hazra C. Medica, will be joined by Reginald Murphy CN, MBE, GOH, PhD, Antigua and Barbuda’s UNESCO National Commission Secretary-General, to guide the implementation of this crucial intersectoral and inter-ministerial project.

In 2020, the nation secured US$ 97,754, / EC$ 264,185.07 in funding from the highly competitive UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund for a 19-month-long project. The project title: Strengthening Capacities for the Implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Antigua and Barbuda.  In the coming months, it will be referred to as “The ICH Project”.

Similar to the now-concluded UNESCO IFCD-sponsored project, the Antigua and Barbuda Cultural Industries Mapping Project, The ICH Project will create several firsts for the nation.   It will result in the nation’s first-ever national living heritage inventory/registry, with the input and involvement of communities across Antigua and Barbuda. The inventory/registry is meant to raise awareness of key living heritage elements, their viability status, and sustainable pathways to safeguard them.

There will also be a one-year Warri revival programme that will involve legendary Warri players, including Grandmaster Trevor Simon (CN), train five hundred and fifty (550) students and fifty (50) members of the business community, churches, community, and sports groups in the history and sport of playing Warri.

Warri is an African cultural retention whose survival undermines the amnesia thrust upon our enslaved African forebearers and their descendants. The skill of playing the game and the intricacies of making Warri boards has persisted through intergenerational transmission. In 1993, a Caribbean Beat Magazine article declared Antigua and Barbuda “the last bastion of Warri in the Caribbean”. Our players have long been highly visible internationally as world champions.

A typical Antiguan scene: Warri being played at the West Bus Station in St. Johns.

© Grandmaster Trevor Simon (CN)

 As a part of this programme, eighteen (18) young people— one group drawn from vocational programmes, and another from within our prison—will also receive training to create Warri boards for local purchase. This will allow for the transmission of the knowledge and continuity of the skills associated with making Warri boards, and allow greater public access to them.  

Competitively priced Warri boards will also ensure earning opportunities will arise for the newly trained artisans. Moreover, tree-planting exercises will be undertaken to increase the number of Caesalpinia Crista trees, the source of the seeds used in Warri.

Additionally, there will be a boatbuilding programme, in which six (6) selected youths will be trained by a traditional boatbuilder to build a tradition-inspired seaworthy vessel. The process will be thoroughly documented for posterity and public dissemination. The intention is to use the programme to elaborate localised occupation standards, certification, and curricula in the field and widen our youths’ maritime skills and the maritime opportunities available to them.

Traditional sailing boats were once built and used in large numbers in Antigua.  The backbone of commerce, they transported goods and people from the land to larger ships anchored in deeper water offshore. In the early years before automobiles and asphalt roads were established, they also transported produce from coastal areas around the island. Over the years several varieties were developed according to their intended function. But in general, the most common vessel type was the sloop. While larger vessels, such as schooners were built for long range trade and transportation, the smaller sloops were versatile, fast, and easy to handle.

Text courtesy Reginald Murphy CN, MBE, GOH, PhD.

Photos courtesy boatbuilder Mr. Alford Cochrane (who also appears in the foreground in the third photo).

Other components of the project will include diverse cultural exhibitions, the publication of a short book based on the Precision Centre’s cultural heritage documentary series, and a programme designed to teach youths traditional toy-making using recycled and indigenous materials.

The ICH Project originally meant for a 2022 launch and to span 19 months will be launched, with a revised timeline, by the end of January 2024.  It was formulated by Cultural Advisor, Dr. Hazra C. Medica, after eight months of consultations with representatives from the private, public, and civil sectors.  The project’s proposal was refined with assistance from the Heritage Department of the National Parks Authority—Reginald Murphy CN, MBE, GOH, PhD (now retired), Dr. Christopher Waters, and Desley Gardner (MA)—and (then) researcher in the Department of Culture, Mr. Anderson O’Marde.

The ICH Project is designed to address the urgent need, long voiced by the public, to safeguard important elements of our living heritage before they vanish. It will also bring to the forefront hitherto untapped economic activities and opportunities existing within our traditional knowledge, skills, and cultural heritage.

More to come!