Arrival Day was imaginative this year

By Al Creighton

Guyana’s Arrival Day was commemorated on May 5 with a series of events leading up to the weekend in celebration of Indian Arrival.  The national effort to mark this anniversary in 2008 was much more imaginative than the menu of programmes offered in recent memory with a range of creative ideas implemented. 

However, those who arrived in the month of May include groups other than the Indians, and it could have been richer and even more interesting if the exhibitions and programmes had also involved the Portuguese.  Under normal circumstances they are under-represented in commemoration activities, and their culture and history are less known.  Yet, they are not without strong traditions which are important to the history and some of which have contributed to contemporary Guyanese society.  For example, they established a very strong tradition in the performing arts and made a number of vibrant contributions to the theatre in Guyana in the nineteenth century, as well as to cultural life in general (see Prof Mary Noel Menezes History of the Portuguese in Guyana).