Dear Editor,
I wish to commend citizen, PPP/C MP Dr. Frank Anthony for his letter, `Urgent steps must be taken by gov’t to preserve Amerindian languages’. Dr. Anthony, importantly, notes:
“The Government of Guyana must have a clearly articulated policy and must set aside the resources to ensure that the policies and programmes are implemented correctly in the various communities.”
Of course, it would have been tremendously helpful if Minister of Culture, Dr. Frank Anthony – presumably the same person as the letter writer – had used his ten years of unbroken ministerial responsibility for the culture portfolio to do exactly what the letter writer recommends.
That said, it should gladden him to know that that very sort of clearly articulated policy has in fact been created since he left Main Street, as encapsulated in the Draft Framework National Cultural Policy. While I still patiently await permission and resources from Cabinet to take the policy to further direct national consultation, a digital copy of the policy has been available – in keeping with UNESCO best practice recommendations – on Facebook since February of last year, along with other supporting documents.
Page 39 of the Draft Framework National Cultural Policy, under the heading of “Oral Traditions and Expressions, Languages”, in the ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ subsection, lists the following recommendations to be undertaken within the 2016-2020 policy implementation cycle:
“* A mapping of the entire traditional linguistic heritage of Guyana and the official recognition of the validity of non-English languages as part of our national patrimony.
* the sourcing and allocation of resources targeting priority areas to mitigate the loss of oral and other linguistic heritage.
* the development and integration of education programmes designed to instruct Indigenous children in particular in their first language.
* the promotion of language preservation and education in the public service media.
* the development of both traditional and non-traditional language competence certification in the public service.”
The policy also reinforces the need for attention to indigenous languages at a fundamental level, via the mainstreaming of culture in development through ensuring the improvement of access to education via linguistic equity in early childhood education. This lends to one of the major thematic thrusts in the policy, the assurance of cultural equity in the exercise of citizenship.
Coming out of this, I spearheaded the government’s push last year to collaborate with the Jesuit organization in Guyana and three indigenous villages in Region Nine in introducing the Wapichan language as the language of first instruction in the official Ministry of Education curriculum in village schools. While I am no longer formally with the Ministry of Education, I believe that the pilot phase of that project was launched fittingly in this month.
In addition to this, I have also engaged several overseas linguistic experts working in indigenous language preservation to provide ongoing technical support (pro bono) in further refining not just the policy recommendations but also a derivative National Language Policy. Also, I maintain a close relationship with the Darwin Initiative in ensuring that there will be practical strategies on language preservation in indigenous communities, inclusive of ensuring that there are adequate intellectual property legislative measures in the area of Traditional Knowledge.
I’m unsure of the current operations, but in 2016 it was announced that radio stations in indigenous communities would feature indigenous language programming.
Now what I completely agree with Dr. Anthony with is that far more urgent action needs to be taken by government, the policy recommendations having long been in place, to implement the recommendations as outlined and to commit to expanding on those few programmes that are currently in their infancy.
What would be tremendously helpful toward this general objective is if PPP/C Member of Parliament, Dr. Frank Anthony (granted his strange positioning of Shadow Minister for Health after ten years of unbroken ministerial responsibility for the culture portfolio) would use his voice in the legislature to advocate for greater budgetary support for the general protection, preservation and promotion of intangible cultural heritage, as well as the consultations on the Framework National Cultural Policy as a whole.
Yours faithfully,
Ruel Johnson
Cultural Policy Advisor,
Government of Guyana