The engagement of Caribbean people with their region is the topic of our cameo exhibition that has been running for a month and ends this week. And recent coverage of regional integration is suggesting that our timing was just right.
A news report from Caribbean360.com, quoted Orlando Marville, a UWI Coordinator of a Law, Governance & Society course as saying that ordinary citizens were making integration a lived reality; while the political leaders needed to step up their efforts and speed up the process.
The report was of a panel discussion at the UWI’s Cave Hill campus in Barbados, looking at the implications of a recent ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on a case with implications for freedom of movement within the region. Panellists looked at regulations to support decisions that have been taken on freedom of movement, issues of sovereignty and the need for popular education regarding rights under the Treaty of Chaguaramas – the current frame for regional integration in the region. But Marville touched on the matter of popular action:
“Very often ordinary people appreciate the community that we have more than the political agents….” He said. “We have to have the sort of commonness that exists for instance among our musicians. I have been in Suriname and heard Surinamese sing bits of songs from Cross Fyah (in Barbados). Alison Hinds sings a song from Suriname as part of her thing and these musicians all believe in our community.”
The UWI Museum exhibition, People & Region, mounted during October with support from the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social & Economic Studies (SALISES), focuses on just such aspects of popular engagement – culture, sport and education.
The exhibition ends November 8 and the Museum will be mounting a new exhibition titled Spanish Trinidad, in collaboration with the High Commission of Trinidad & Tobago, from November 13 – 27. The UWI’s semi-permanent exhibition, Origins wil continue on show.
UWI Museum 