20 September 2006

Upcoming News from Arima, Trinidad

Well everyone, in a few hours I am off to Arima, Trinidad. I will be covering events surrounding CARIFESTA (see http://www.carifesta.net/), focusing entirely on the Santa Rosa Carib Community as it plays host in Arima to numerous Amerindian delegations from across the Circum-Caribbean region. At the same time, the Caribbean Organization of Indigenous Peoples (COIP) will be entering a new phase as Ricardo Bharath Hernandez, head of the Arima Carib community, becomes COIP's new chair.

Despite the many shortcomings and disarray that have plagued CARIFESTA IX, this should still be a momentous occasion for many of the region's indigenous communities.

I return to Montreal on October 1st, and I should post some materials, and some news, on this blog soon after I return.

[My thanks to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding that made this trip possible. Funding was received in the form of a Standard Research Grant for my project titled, "Indigenous translocals in the Caribbean: place, intimacy and the quotidian dimensions of the regionalized Carib resurgence."]

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