Researcher in the Department of Language and Cultural Studies, University of Guyana, Louisa Daggers wants legal protection for cultural sites and cultural heritage.
Daggers, 35, notes that Guyana has neither accepted nor ratified the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.
“So it is on us as a people to protect our cultural sites and cultural properties. This is why we hope our recent publication, The Archeology of Guyana, can bring some awareness to people and communities. Once you sell that bit of your cultural heritage, there is no way to get it back. Hopefully with greater consciousness of how important this heritage is, we can collectively, as a country, work with our governments to have proper policies in place to protect heritage sites given the rapid rate of development, mining, logging and risks from climate change.”