The communal lifestyle in Amerindian villages is beneficial, the lack of individual titles should not be fatal

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56531932

The communal lifestyle in Amerindian villages is beneficial, the lack
of individual titles should not be fatal
Stabroek News, Saturday, October 27th 2007

Dear Editor,

"The world is changing in the United Nations favour as more people and
governments understand that multilateralism is the only path in an
interdependent and globalizing world. So going it alone is not a viable
option." - UN Secretary - General: Mr Ban Ki-moon.

Early this month I was invited by a Professor friend of mine - Ms
Patricia Fay -attached to the Florida Gulf Coast University to give a
'talk' about my village life as a child to interdisciplinary senior
students. This was in an effort to give the students a view of a
different life style of people in other parts of the world and to give
them a sense of balance on how they view life in general.

After the talk my friend asked me if I ever thought of bring my mother
to live with me. I told her that I do not want to 'imprison' my mother
in a little building with very limited land space - the answer that I
have been giving whenever I was asked the same question when I was
living in Georgetown and the Caribbean. She understood what I meant
because she is familiar with that free /open life style in the
Caribbean and villages in the Rupununi.

Anyway the point of this letter is to encourage my Anerindian brothers
and sisters of 4 Miles, Kaituma, North West, particularly, and other
titled villages to see the beauty of living in communal titled lands
and to point out also that we as Amerindians have the right or option
to live outside of our communal titled lands.

Unlike my brother J.H. Roberts whose letter captioned "Amerindians on
reservations cannot have individual titles to their land" was published
on October 24,2007, I did not have that lovely experience of growing up
into my adulthood in my village (Katoka, Rupununi) with my parents.

The first reason was that there was no school in the village at the
time. Hence I moved to Yupukari , at the age of six, where I stayed
with my late godmother - Ethaline Thomas- in order to attend school (
this school was central for surrounding subvillages which fell under
the administration of Yupukari Village Council even though they were
not physically included in the Yupukari Reserved area). After several
years I acquired a scholarship to attend St. Ignatius Secondary School.
I moved to the coast, after briefly teaching at my former primary
school and working with Malaria Eradication Programme, where I spent
most of my life studying.

When I was preparing to return to my region so that I can be close to
my parents, during my final year at the University of Guyana, my father
had passed away (message I got months later) and at the same time I was
appointed to teach at St. Mary's College in St. Lucia. I opted to
fulfil the latter. This gave me a wonderful opportunity to meet my
Carib brothers and sisters of Dominica who live in a reservation.

During my absence from my village, for most of my life, ( Katoka/
Yupukari) it was never out of my mind, even now. 'May be I drank too
much of that tasty dark Katoka creek water.' This was because I saw ,as
a child, the effect of the communal way - harmony, love, and
togetherness - our cultural way - that the rest of world (UN) is now
trying to establish.

Beside the village council, perhaps we can work in groups/sub
regionally (several villages coming together) to overcome our
shortcomings and to create a stronger community. North Rupununi
District Development Board is an example that other communities should
follow.

A Village Council, if capacitated with enlightened/learned members, can
be likened to a government. As an established/recognized body by law,
in my opinion, it can have access to loan agencies/banks for the
benefit of all.

In closing, for this reason, I would like to reiterate what I said in
my last letter that "every Amerindian village could have an education
and development fund" (07.10.15) where I shared ideas of fund raising
to establish Village Education and Development Fund; establish a
village farm - farming/live stock - and village shop (food, crafts,
art, music,) managed by the Village Council.

It is a dream of mine to assist any village that sees the necessity of
such fund in the future using the last bit of my athletic ability and
my natural talents - art, craft, and music.

For consultation purposes I submit my email address: Macushi9@cfl.rr.com

Yours faithfully,

Guy Marco