When she was three years old, the multitalented Tristana Roberts paraded in a butterfly costume while in nursery school for that year’s Children’s Mashramani road march. Since then, her love for Mashramani costumed bands and float parades has grown and she has participated as a reveller or as a queen.
“… I have literally been in costumes at Mashramani for some 30 years,” the now 36-year-old triple threat artist told Stabroek Weekend. “The only time I missed being in a costume in a band was due to an ankle injury. This year, I am pulling a queen’s costume in the Ministry of Education band and it will be educational for sure.”
She wants to see Mashramani bigger and better, more inclusive, more authentic, more Guyanese and not copying from Trinidad or Brazil carnivals or Barbados Crop Over. “I have nothing against them but we should be proud to showcase and promote our folklore, short stories, history and the like, so our young people could have an understanding and be proud of what we have so not only, we, ourselves learn about our own culture but visitors to our Mashramani must know about our rich cultural heritage,” she said.