London Seminar
This is a little late in coming but there has been a lot to do since I got back from LondonI also wanted to see what was going on here and get a feel for the general atmosphere after being in the world of the anonymous, parks, theatre, stores, tall buildings, great architecture, traffic and crowds.
I was in London to represent the Department of Cultural Arts and the Federation in attending a workshop seminar on Heritage and Culture given by the Public Administration International (PAI) a British Governmental body that gives these types of seminars to professionals in a range of administrative fields. Our goal was to see if there were ways in which to network with funding sources for community projects under the general concept of cultural conservation.
This was the first time PAI put on a programme for Heritage and Culture and we, who attended, were in reality their experiment in this very important part of the British cultural make-up. What is a little interesting about it is that none of the participants were British. The seven participants were from Malaysia, Canada, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Tanzania, Sweden and myself. What was even more interesting to me was the fact that I was representing a group of that did not have the word heritage in any official title, as most of these people had, and most of the presenters also had.
Until I understood the gravity of that omission in looking for ways to assist the Ministry and Department of Culture, I was a bit confused about the points of the presenters. The lectures opened that door since they all began with a definition of heritage and went into the value systems derived from cultural heritage. Under this general term came the different types of cultural heritage such as cultural arts.
We had some of the greats in the grand area of heritage conservation and I came away with another of those awakenings that allow you to just shift your head a little and realize what has been missing from our understanding of our basic premise in the Federation’s relationships with government.
We have never completely fit into the organisation of the Turks and Caicos Islands government structure as a newly developing non-profit organisation needing initial support from a specific government function. It seemed like we should have automatically gone under the wing of the Ministry of Education, Youth, Sports and Culture but none of our correspondences were ever even returned from that Ministry for the first two years of our existence though we worked in the schools teaching cultural history, mentored children, raced sloops and presented cultural heritage programmes to the public. The Department of Culture (as it was then called) recognized our direction as similar to their’s but the arts were more in their vision and they were and still are too understaffed and underfunded to be of much assistance.
We were accepted by the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources because of our kinship with their marine fisheries and our non-pollutant method of teaching about the natural environment, as well as the wise recognition by the DECR that the human environment was a precious part of their mandate and heritage is how one defines the human environment.
Within the Federation itself, amongst the Board of Governors there also seemed to be a misdirection or a simplification of the mandate to pass on cultural information from one generation to the next with the concept of our boatbuilding was to start up a racing fleet. And that racing sloops was our ultimate goal.
So, here I am working toward establishing an academic and practical learning institution while those who can aid us did not seem to be able to categorize us and those around me seemed to think we were getting too big for our britches with this educational stuff.
The PAI conference opened my eyes to my own mistakes in trying to keep the Federation more accented to support from the private sector and little contact with the government or public sector because of the initial ignoring our strides and gains. There just really was not a government system devise to cope with our organisation mandate because the word heritage had no presence in government. If there had been a Department of Cultural Heritage, as all the participating countries in our little seminar have in some form, there would have been an easy access to assistance in the start up phases of the Federation and possibly in the start up of other potential community groups focusing on heritage programmes.
David’s Department of Culture was the only government department that seemed to be directly in line with our aspirations. Even the Department of Sports did not seem to recognize sailboat racing as a sport, though they did back poker, which really confused and demoralized us.
Today, as a result of the experience in London, which focussed on cultivating government awareness of the importance of cultural heritage by using examples of that appreciation in the United Kingdom, I have arrived at an entirely different concept of what we have to do to become a part of not just a business sector and community popular organisation but a government assisted organisation also. We need a Cultural Heritage Commission just as the Department of Cultural Arts has the Cultural Arts Commission.
That says it all. Such a Commission could unify the culturally driven organisations with the TCI National Trust, TCI National Museum, a new national archives, church groups, architectural organisations, service clubs, a public library system, cultural research groups, history organisations all going in the same direction. With that type of unity, technical and funding resources can be sought in conjunction with each other as opposed to competing with each other.
As Kate Clark, the Deputy Director of the UK Heritage Lottery Fund, stated in both of her lectures to us, “Work with a definition of conservation that is about handing on what we value to future generations.” Since 1995 the Heritage Lottery Fund has given some £3 billion to 15,000 cultural heritage projects.
So we have to try and impress upon government, especially the new Ministry of Education, Youth, Sports and Culture the significance of adding Heritage to that title and the establishment of a cultural heritage directive.
Heritage directly deals with the family and basic reasons for a family which is to pass on that linkage from generation to generation.
Since returning I have submitted a report on the seminar to Minister Doctor Carlton Mills and he has seemed surprised in an enthusiastically positive way about the suggestion. Dr. Mills has already started up a History Research Group outside the Ministry and seemed to acknowledge a reasoning for this addition.
Provo Day
Well, it is here again. We are coming up on the Provo Day Regatta in Bluehills and this year promises to be a return to the traditional event that doesn’t seem to have a specific date of an initial starting. Nobody seems to agree on when it became a looked forward to event, it just always seemed to be there in late July until recently.
Two years ago when the Federation assisted the TCI Tourist Board in putting on a race for Provo Day as a part of the newly created Music and Culture Festival the sloop racing seemed downplayed and the public, especially in the Bight, Seven Cays, Bluehills and Wheeland felt deeply insulted. There was even an attempt to separate the two events and have a Bluehills Provo Day contesting the Music and Cultural Festival.
The TCI Tourist Board persisted in financially assisting the event and it was held with just three Sloops that year and just four Sloops the following year. This year, because of the re-newed and serious interest and investment in Sloop construction and racing there should be at least ten and maybe twelve Sloops racing off Bluehills. There are fourteen Sloops available to race but several of the owners might not be competing for one reason or the other.
There has been shown a different slant to the participants in the racing these days with many of the sailors wanting to preserve the racing spirit even if the purses are not great, and more and more are saying even if there isn’t a purse. That is new and with more Sloops available to race, the concept of annual sponsorships should be capitalized on by the private sector.
The TCI Tourist Board is sponsoring the Provo Day Regatta celebration this year in conjunction with the Music and Culture Festival. Deputy Director Ralph Higgs wants to see music, food and community all along the waterfront of Bluehills. The Federation is recommending an extended day of racing by an Open Race for all types of vessels to start of the day, then Class races done separately with hour breaks between races to give the best sailors a chance to crew the three classes of vessels. This could be a great vision and a testimony to a working partnership between an NGO and Government. Sponsorship for the vessels can be seen by logos on sails to a large crowd of people who come to watch not only the Sloops but all the boats in the Open Race.
The TCI Challenge Cup Regatta second day of racing in the Fools Regatta demonstrated what a fine visual day we can have on a regular basis with enough support.
Regatta Commission
We asked some of the most outstanding citizens in the Turks and Caicos Islands to form a Regatta Commission just before I left for London and nobody refused, most stating that we have to keep Sloop racing going and we need to organize marine activities to do that.
I am sorry that I have not been able to catch up on the many things that are pressing with the Federation and have not had the time to continue the organisation of that body. I will try to do so now with a call for a meeting or meetings with those persons who have accepted assisting the formation.
History Research Group
The Honourable Dr. Carlton Mills wanted to form a volunteer group of those interested in the research of history of the Turks and Caicos Islands and we were able to have one meeting which was productive in that it showed who were earnestly interested in creating such a body. The second meeting was postponed due to school recess and the majority of the original attendees not being on Island
This will probably be the most important type of group to advance the concept of cultural heritage conservation this country will have. Everything is contained within the concept of this body from research to preservation and presentation of the historical evidence of this country’s existence. In the last meeting the main topic seemed to always return to the establishment of a national archives.
There has been little correspondence between our participants and time has moved on. I am hoping that we can get together in a small or large meeting within the next couple of weeks to push our connectivity in this area of our great interest.
I will be going back to England, to the West Country and the National Maritime Museum Cornwall to research the origins of the Turks Islands and Caicos Islands Sloop designs late this month and hope to establish an understanding that if information is needed in other areas while I am there, where our records are, I will try to get that information or references.
Ms. Mavis Butterfield (Francis) of the Grand Turk TCI Tourist Board is coordinating the History Research Group and can be reached at
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or telephone her at 946-2321.
Writers’ Group
Dr. Ed Williams was greatly disappointed by the amount of grant money to publish the first anthology of poetry and prose, A Walk On Our Beach, that was awarded through the Community Conservation Fund. Ed had thought, because of assurances, that the full amount needed to publish and promote this 128-page illustrated book with contributions from Sandra Garland, David Bowen, Dr. Gilbert Morris, Ed, myself and Euwonka Selver would be forthcoming.
Because of this assurance, he felt, the Writers’ Group had not solicited other sponsorship. The idea was to start with this anthology and use the profit from the sales to offer publishing to local writers. The Writers’ Group has registered as a non-profit association and is made up of local writers in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The book gives a candid perspective of the writers’ experiences in the Turks and Caicos Island, including cultural aspects of living here.
The Writers’ Group is open to all members of the community and does not have a membership fee. We meet every Tuesday at noon to give positive feedback to our writings. The groups are limited to a maximum of five persons per group. You can call Euwonka at 241 3496 or Ed at 231 3800 if you wish to attend a meeting or join.
The Writers’ Group has the graphics and text ready for publication but needs about $15,000 to print 5,000 copies and insure promotion and distribution of A Walk On Our Beach.
Federation Log In August and September
I will be in England, leaving the TCI on 27 July to be with Katya and to await our baby. I will be researching the design origins of TCI sailing vessels in the West Country and along the East Coast of England because of the direction the fore and aft design took after leaving the Netherlands in the early 17th Century. I have established some contacts in the West Country and have found that though nobody seemed to have thought about relating Caribbean designs to their origins amongst those researchers there is an undercurrent of excitement about my little quest by those same researchers. This could open up a whole shift in interest from just how the designs were of use in the UK but also their influence upon the Western Hemisphere. And, the forementor of this area of potential study will have started in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
I do not have all of the funding to complete the writing of the planned 250-page illustrated history, SPIRIT The Turks Islands and Caicos Islands Sloops, but if you know anybody who would like to contribute to the first Turks and Caicos Islands maritime history book please have them contact me at 649 243 2093. I will forward a UK phone number later.
The Federation Log will attempt to be continued while I am in the UK through communication with our members and I will also attempt to send reports on what I am researching for those who are interested. We have some interesting invitations already and I am looking forward to seeing our newborn as well as visiting those parts of England.
Going to the Bahamas
The Boys want to take at least one Caicos Sloop to the 1 January Nassau based regatta in the Bahamas. If you want to assist in this in your face challenge to the Bahamas call Goldray Ewing at 331 4337. Maybe we can get them to come here this next year…?
Junior Park Warden Programme
Our dynamic DECR Education Officer, Rhonda Lee Dalrymple, brought in Ms Amy Fleischer to coordinate the 2007 Junior Park Warden Programme for the two weeks from the 16th through the 30th of July. There are 17 students from around the Turks and Caicos participating here in Providenciales. There is a pilot programme of five days going on on Grand Turk at the same time this year.
Our contribution was a one-day involvement with the students rigging Carlon Forbes Middle Caicos Sloop models and sailing off Sailing Paradise aboard Environment I and DC Valley Stream Jr.
A hectic schedule was made even more hectic when I was asked to pre-record our How Culture Works segment that same day. Rhonda, Amy and student Andresha Gardiner raced back to the WIV studios and taped an hour-long programme, then raced back to Sailing Paradise to continue the days schedule.
Strangely enough the programme was not aired, being replaced by a fictional movie made for television called, Daddy’s Little Girls? I do think the work the DECR and this programme in particular is more valuable for viewing then some fictional portrayal of Hollywood’s view of life in the ghetto and aspirants emerging from that world. I know the ghetto and it sure does not look like what is in this mediocre production.
Photos
We always need photographs of the Sloops. So if you have any that you would like our readership and web visitors to see please send them to this email address. Our website, which I never seem to have a chance to do anything with, but gracious Laura of Adventurescape seems to find the time to help us out by labouriously deciphering my scribble and posting on the thing. Some day there will be time…. I think.
Picking Up Money
Sorry I have not had the time to come out and pick up some of the monies for the t-shirt logo ads for the Mariners’ Week (TCI Challenge Cup and Fools Regatta) Celebration. I will try to get to you. If you could do me the favour and call Becky Carlson, our Treasurer at 331 3131 to arrange to give her the $100s or me at 243 2093 we would appreciate it.
Sloop Study In England
I will be leaving this Friday to get as much information on the development of the Turks Islands and Caicos Islands Sloops that I can from institutions in England. What I find, and reference details are the biggest asset, will be put out on our Log. Hopefully, this will encourage more research in this very large and untouched area of study.
Oh, and we are expecting our child to be born on the 11th of August in London. We have enough baby clothes…
I am happy
