Culture and Tourism Month Press Conference

thank you thank you foreign foreign foreign you ready right yeah he said he's ready so greetings all I'm Desiree Smith Chief Information officer in the department of information and public relations otherwise known as GIS and it's my pleasure to welcome you today to this live press conference about uh culture and tourism month that will be taking place in November under the theme the past is present embracing Virgin Islands Traditions the panelists here we have a full panel today of individuals that are going to be able to present on this matter concerning the celebrations and the activities that will be taking place for uh culture and tourism month and we have the premier and Minister for finance he's also the minister for culture and tourism Dr The Honorable Natalia D Wheatley we have the junior Minister for tourism honorable Alvaro Maduro Keynes we have director for the Department of culture Dr Catherine Smith and we also have director of the BVI Taurus board Mr Clive McCoy as well as president of the H lavity Stout Community College Dr Richard Georges so now I will turn our attention to the remarks and statements from Primera and Minister for culture and tourism Dr The Honorable Natalia D Wheatley premiere uh thank you Desiree and uh let me just say good morning and God's blessings I acknowledge all the persons uh present for this press conference culture and tourism have great synergy and it has been the position of this Administration on that culture and tourism have a much closer work in relationship this began from the time when I was in the Ministry of Education and of course November was also considered to be tourism month and also November is when we had our culture week and we decided that a week was not long enough to celebrate our culture and therefore we wanted a month-long celebration of culture and it only made sense for us to combine our culture uh weaken what became culture month with um tourism month uh to in combination on culture and tourism month I want to congratulate the director of culture I'm Dr Kathy Smith for all the work that she's put in on the past culture and tourism months along with of course the director of The Tourist Board Clyde McCoy and we want to take it to the next level because we have a real mandate to diversify our tourism product and we have a mandate to have Place more emphasis on culture even among our local residents of course as it pertains to tourism we do very well in the areas that we focus on right now of course with the sailing capital of the world we're also the home of luxury tourism uh persons know what you can expect when you come to the BVI a place of Peace a place of Serenity a place with a beautiful environment and of course our lovely sailing Waters but we want to know uh we want to let our visitors know as well that we have a wonderful culture to display just about every place that I've gone in the world as a visitor you have museums that persons can go to and learn a little bit about the history and the culture of a particular people and it is Our intention to ensure that when you come to the Virgin Islands you have top of the line museums and in fact we have increased the pay to make sure that our national museum is being built we call together all stakeholders combined under the leadership and management of the RDA to make sure that we have a national museum that will be designed and ready to go in the next few months and of course in addition to our museums visitors want to come and see your your art gallery they want to come and read your literature they want to come and they want to see your musicians and hear your musicians they want to see a mark of June beasts they want to listen to your poetry or all of these things we want to put on display visit us they want to experience your cultural cuisine they have not come here to eat hamburgers and Fries they want to see what you have to offer they can get this hamburger and fries someplace else of course if they want that we'll give them that but we want to introduce them to our fish in mayonnaise sauce our fungi we're going to introduce them to our Johnny cakes that's something that they can't get where they've come from and we want them to be able to experience that so in order to take our tourism product to the next level we must must introduce the visitors to our awesome culture I'm very happy that we have present our Poet Laureate and also the president of hlscc he and I know very well that we travel and we go to literature conferences elsewhere uh we go to poetry conferences elsewhere and some persons who are not in the area may not realize how many visitors can be attracted to the Virgin Islands just to participate in things like poetry and literature conferences and even poetry slams and and things of that nature so this is the particular mandate that we have and we're pressing gas we're not reversing and we're not um pressing the brakes uh this is the direction we're going and this is the direction that is going to enrich us and of course as it pertains to our local residents experiencing our culture and our heritage this two we're going to take to the next level um culture week just used to be something that focused mainly on our schools and rightly so of course we want our schools to have a rich and vibrant cultural experience not just during this week but for the entire year and of course we know the culture uh department has a focus on cultural education throughout the whole year as well as focusing our as a on our curriculum and making sure that the teachers are well equipped to deliver our cultural education but we wanted to expand beyond the schools and make it a whole Community affair because despite the fact uh that of course we've been living here in the Virgin Islands for for many years there's lots of things that persons don't know they don't know about the rich Heritage that we have here as as a people because we did not learn it in the schools some persons have made Valiant effort to write books but we have to help to promote those books and write new books and have more documentaries that will focus on our cultural uh Heritage so that we'll be better defend the Virgin Islands when when we have uh various threats that threaten our culture uh threaten Our Heritage and even threaten our freedom that will have that cultural Foundation that will give us the cultural confidence to move forward into a different political atmosphere and a different political era of course this is our hope and our wish that based on the sacrifices our four parents made we know what we need to do moving forward into the future so I'm quite happy to be here for this press conference for culture and tourism month uh I'm looking forward to the Slate of activities that we have I'm very excited about the fungi Fest which will be led by the junior Minister for tourism and let me say at this point that the the culture portfolio will be assigned to the junior minister so she will be the junior minister of culture and tourism and I can't think of anyone better to be able to take for those two portfolios and make them walk uh herself in my viewer cultural icon um honorable alvara Maduro Kings and someone who loves our culture and is the best person to help to to bring Focus to culture and tourism in combination and I'm very excited about the fungi Fest and I'm looking forward to it so I I'm grateful for the opportunity to say these few words and I certainly will turn it back over to you desperate very much premiere for those open and remarks for this press conference concerning next month's culture and tourism month I'll now take this opportunity to turn it over to Dr Catherine Smith director of the Department of culture and she will continue with the moderation of the panels panelists Dr Smith thank you Miss Smith greetings everyone greetings to the listening and viewing public as has been mentioned culture and tourism month is held during November of each year now the inaugural culture and tourism month has been mentioned as has been mentioned was held in 2020 the aim of the month is to more closely integrate the portfolios of culture and tourism in other words to develop promote and Market Virgin Islands culture Arts and Heritage actually these activities will ultimate ultimately strengthen the cultural identity of the Virgin Islands and as in has been mentioned the previous and long-standing culture week activities were integrated into this month wild culture and tourism month then fulfills the Mandate of the BVI tourist board and film commission it also fulfills the department of culture's mandate to develop the creative economy creative Industries contribute to human and sustainable development now through these industries people are able to shape their own development they strengthen social cohesion and at the same time create jobs and and generate economic wealth the cultural domains here include the performance arts visual arts and craft including multimedia Arts literary Arts as well as cultural cultural heritage tangible and intangible tangible as has just been mentioned by The Honorable Premier Museum's historical sites burial grounds all places of historic significance the theme for this month coming up is of course the past is present embracing Virgin Islands traditions the department of culture has for some time been receiving feedback that the Traditions some of the traditions of the Virgin Islands have to be strengthened more widely known and celebrated on you know on a wider you know in a wider way throughout the general public some of the Traditions are less the I wouldn't say that they're disappearing I would say that they're not as highlighted and visible as they should be and therefore during this month we're going to see that theme streaming throughout activities I want to let everyone know that we open with a ceremony at Maria's by the Sea on the 1st of November at 10 A.M immediately following this opening ceremony there will be a visual arts Expo everybody so what we have been doing is we have been working with our visual artists who are very talented I think we should know that by now throughout the territory and we want them to be able to bring their their work their products through all the different genres photography Craft um anything paintings you know we just want to be able to display that so at 11 A.M after the press conference finishes we definitely invite the public to come and view the pieces View and purchase that will be available to the general public between 11 and 5 PM between 5 PM and 8 PM we have a special session meet the artist and everyone finishing after work I just encourage everyone to come over to Maria's by the see the conference room the tortilla conference room meet the artist it's a cultural cocktail type of event and that proves to be very exciting in a minute we're going to talk about the very uh vibrant exciting complete thorough literary Festival I think persons have been hearing about the literary Festival this is the second literary Festival BVI literary Festival um on the second and third leading up to this Festival the department of culture in a series of pre-literary Festival activities we'll be donating cultural books to schools throughout the territory we just heard the premise speak on the importance of cultural education and it's just important that we are able to select the vast we have so many authors who have written over time and are these books in the schools at least we can make sure that libraries have these books when it comes time to learn from our actual authors who have shared such Rich information at this point in time I do want to turn the floor over to a poet laureate and the president of hlsec who will take us through the BVI literary Festival this is a great partner we have in in hlscc in in in moving the literary Festival forward um before I begin I want to thank um especially the sponsors of the BVI lit Fest who um without whom it would not be possible so we have our Premier sponsor a unite bva we have BP Bank um and I don't want to insult anybody else in case I forget them but we have a National Bank of the Virgin Islands alaman Cordero um cct284 um and many others and of course we have a collaborating Partners the college uh um Department of culture and the BVI tourist board all of whom have played a vital role in ensuring the festival takes place we have over 40 uh guests um who will be on the program on the Thursday evening there will be a reception for the writers for our sponsors and for the dignitaries and the and other guests Fridays when the festival really kicks off Friday all day at hlsec we have the parakeet Bay Campus there will be panel discussions readings film um Etc from about 9 A.M in the morning until 4 30 in the afternoon we have right now confirmed almost almost 100 high school students will be in attendance so that's something that we're very passionate about ensuring that this is not something that we create and it is uh separated out from the experience of our um you know up and coming uh members of society especially that we can expose them to literary Arts as soon as possible and to try to generate interest in those who might decide to be uh writers in the future or at least to encourage a culture of literacy culture of reading and appreciating the literary Arts on the Friday evening we are showcasing some of our finest emerging local talent in literature and that will be headlined by one of our featured guests who is the Darren Sandy who's the poetry slam champion of Trinidad and Tobago that will be held at sushiba from I think seven onwards on Saturday the festival shifts towards murios by the Sea so this Saturday is at the college during the day Saturday at Maria's by the Sea where Department of culture is hosting a local book fair I also wanted to if I may Pub and plug the Virgin Island Studies Institute which will be present at the book fair with the booth because it's a major resource obviously to a lot of the local literature that is written in addition to that um in simultaneously with the book fair we will have several writers workshops taking place first there will be a talk on publishing by esteemed publicist in the literary um literary industry Iona deshongs who has worked as a publicist for luminaries like Alice Walker and many other big name best-selling writers following that we will have poetry workshops fiction non-fiction and children's literature workshops in the evening we shift back to the ideal Parsons Auditorium for the it's lit poetry slam which has a grand prize of a thousand dollars up for grabs for the best slam for it there is um there's a flyer out I believe on the at least that's on the I think it's on the college website giving you details on how to register you have to submit I believe this week early next week to qualify for selection for the slam and I just want to go back and mention some of the the guests who are coming in uh and of course you'd recognize many of the local names so I'll focus on International ones or Headliners is the multiple award-winning Jamaican poet novelist and essayist Kai Miller we have the syntonian price winning writer Tiffany unique um I'm almost forgetting how many of the writers we have uh Desiree Bailey uh Anna portno Brimmer from Puerto Rico and many many many others um many of whom have um critically acclaimed works out right now books will be available for sale uh on Friday at the college for those who come out and obviously again at the book fair will be booksellers present at Maria's by the sea in the Tortola conference room so I just wanted to give a quick uh Prelude to the literary festival with more information and the complete information is it's available on bvilitfest.com and on the register page is where you can register for the individual workshops at a price of I think twenty dollars per Workshop so I definitely encourage you guys to check it out and to register if you're interested in taking one of the Workshops the payment for workshops will be collected on the day at the first national Studies Institute both at the book fair okay I think I think I hope that as thorough uh a survey of the trade Festival as it's possible plant and major um we we're looking forward also to local authors book fair at Maria's as you just mentioned between 10 and 3 on Saturday the 5th of November the department receives a number of calls it seems as if there's a great thirst to understand the story of the Virgin Islands and there's not a connection to the fact that we have had many authors actually write in different creative ways about this story what we're attempting to do at this time is fill that Gap and have our authors there we're going to have readings children's books readings adults will be doing readings and just you know make sure that you come on out to that and make sure you support all of the activities the excellent excellent activities that Dr George's has just outlined it's taken a lot of work it's great moving on um did you want to mention the writer's Excursion on the Sunday yeah so there is an Excursion I think um however it's not open to the public but the writers that come for the literary Festival you know we are thankful at the tourist board has agreed to um give them the proper BVI experience so they don't just come here to work and they have a chance to experience a BVI so we have to thank our partners of the tourist board for creating that for them I also want to thank them for handling the writer's receptions at um beef Island and Road tone fairy duck which you know we are very um we want to make sure that when we bring in focus of this magnitude that they have the best possible experience of upon their arrival and throughout this day in the bva so we have to thank the tourist board for sparing no expense and making sure that is secured yes and thanking the tourist spot as well for agreeing to drive the industry to our Arts Expo and also the the local book fair moving along to the week starting with the seventh this is the second week of culture and tourism month um we have also received calls regarding the cultural dances of the Virgin Islands and the fact that they really need to be highlighted and brought more to the front so of course we're talking about dances such as the quadrille two-step seven-step mocha jumbis the Platt pool even the African dance that is on a historical record from the 19th century the kampfu or kampfu um it's seen in with two types of spellings in the on the historical record so during that week we'll be going into the schools especially the senior students 12th graders and what we're going to be doing is we're going to be making presentations and then we're going to be doing demos demonstrations on the collective the collective of our cultural dances to 12th graders before they get to graduate this is a precursor to a cultural dance program that we've been working with the Ministry of Education to introduce into the schools um but of course it's good to address the 12th Graces graders that they would be graduating um there's a history and a story and an interconnectedness to all of our cultural dances that is deep and actually quite fascinating and we're doing that under the title on route to Our Roots now on Friday at hlscc Auditorium the island passes Auditorium we will have a BVI cultural Affair and evening of Dance so there's an exciting program of pure cultural dance and as the story to it that has been developed and this will begin at seven at the auditorium um uh we actually have been in touch with the dance schools throughout the territory as well as cultural groups the mokojumbi cultural groups all of them the Heritage dancers and all the dance schools who have um eagerly embraced cultural dance and everyone will be working together for this um I want to then mention our long-standing partner the Virgin Islands communal Association otherwise known as FICA and on the 12th of November at the festival grounds they will be carrying out their traditional bonfire night with cultural activities but the activities have actually doubled or tripled it starts at 8 A.M and I've seen in their program a traditional food competition traditional games tournament just traditional games just fun activities as well and then I've also seen of course their regular bonfire with the sankies um dance and and poetry performance so I think that they've really um you know stepped up stepped up their their performance and and we'll we'll all be looking forward to that moving into the third week now um I'm just going to mention a few Arts workshops that we're offering why are we doing this these workshops are particularly based on some of the Arts that need to be more prevalent we're hoping to have and she has agreed Miss Adina pin and we really want to learn about the different methods of straw planning I'm talking about the BVI way of doing it traditionally the the plants that are used the different types of hats that are that are produced based on this um we want to have of course making pottery with Carl Burnett we're going to have a workshop in depth with photography with Robert storm right and of course then we're going to look at basket and bottle weaving with Cedric Turnbull I want to say at this point that there's a need to speak also more moving forward from the Department of culture around the topic of intellectual property that's a good part that's a good spot to mention that so those workshops look to be quite interesting and please follow the department of culture at Virgin Islands Department of culture and you will see all of the information there all right everybody um I want to just quickly mention during that week you would hear a number of radio broadcasts and print media highlight of some of our artists as well we're now at the point where we're going to go into the week of the the the sorry the the 21st which is culture week everyone everyone should probably know that by now that is culture week for the schools and the schools will be lit they'll be vibrant they were completely active and vibrant last year we're looking forward to that again on that Friday we will have our long-standing cultural cultural food fair but this year there's a Twist we're actually combining and collaborating with the honorable Maduro Keynes and the fungi Fest and I think at this point I'm going to turn the mic over to honorable Maduro Keynes thank you Dr Smith thank you Dr Smith and good morning to everyone it's I'm truly excited to be a part of this tourism and cultural month long month of Celebration and um as I often say you don't know you cannot know where you're going if you don't know where you came from so it's important that we teach and we preserve our culture and not just to locals but visitors alike on the 25th we will be having the fungi Fest we're attempting to bring it back which we will bring it back it's been missing for quite some time now and we collaborating with the food fair so everything will be held on that same day we're bringing in we have about nine bands slated for the fungi Fest uh two of who would be coming from overseas so Algerian the week or the week before you'll be hearing the music from those um various artists who will be bringing in to um celebrate this fungi first so we're asking that everyone come out and support I have spoken with um I don't want to call a boopy but that's right in in Ganesha with the food fair and what we're attempting to do the bands the outside bands overseas bands will be coming in from Thursday so we're attempting to have them play during the day as well as in the night so it'll have entertainment all during the the the food the food um the food fair and well into the evening for the fungi first so it is going to be exciting trust me it's going to be exciting and we need to really preserve this music we'll be having bands from different schools as well to participate and we need to keep that tradition going especially in the schools and teach us students teach our young people about this music we cannot afford to to lose it we have lost the fungi Fest for a few years so we're bringing it back now and it is my intention as long as I'm Junior minister of Tourism and culture that this would continue you know for years years upon years upon years because like I said we cannot afford to lose our culture you can't know where you're going if you don't know where you came from so I'm asking everyone to come out on the 25th and to really support the food fair and support the fungi Fest thank you thank you so much um and that all of those activities will be at the Tortola Pier Park okay thank you so much honorable material Keynes and now we turn the floor over to the director of Tourism Mr Clive McCoy thank you good morning all and thank you Dr Smith for having us here today um we at the BBA tourists board are very excited about the upcoming culture and tourism month as you and I have uh discussed uh many occasions um culture is a major part of Tourism the more we're able to Showcase what our culture has the better our product is going to be in the long run a study that we read in a few months ago noted that the guest that is traveling now is looking for cultural experiences once they arrive in certain in their destinations they say that 70 percent of persons that are traveling today are looking for cultural experiences that is a major deal now what we have noticed is most persons that come to the British Virgin Islands and many other destinations as well is that they don't come necessarily looking for the culture however when they get there they don't come because of the cause of sorry but once they get there then they're looking for it they're looking to taste our food they're looking to to see what our dance is like they're looking to see what our people are like um and one of the major things about the British Virgin Islands is that we have the highest return rate of any other destination in the Caribbean and it's not the sun it's not the sea it's not it's not the sun it's the people of the BVI it's the culture of the BVI it's what um people are constantly coming back and looking for I can't tell you how many times I have been away and I'm speaking about the British Virgin Islands and people have come to me and they don't mention a restaurant or they or a Visa they went to they want to know if I know a specific Taxi man or if I know a specific weight or a waitress that speaks to our culture that speaks to the type of people that we have in the British Virgin Islands and um we're so happy to collaborate with you um on pushing our culture here in the British Virgin Islands we have spoken to our industry Partners about it uh we're hopeful that moving forward we can start seeing more um local dishes on our menus at some of our larger restaurants or more popular restaurants and um it's just a wonderful time I I I I I am very excited about the the late Fest I'm a Avid Reader so I've had some conversations with the president there concerning it and um most of our guests Fallen within that type of um clientele as well their their persons that are looking for poetry and local books and so forth uh then of course at the end of the month we have the uh big bad and he got a Lobster Fest coming up which we are all excited about coming out of um covet 19.

it's anticipated that this is going to be um the largest one that we've ever seen the Lobster Fest isn't just about a big party it's about our culture as well um our culture of having the best lobster in the Caribbean is from the ocean to the grill to your clients play to your plate my plate everybody's played um so we're looking forward to that we have 10 restaurants that have signed up for it for this tent iteration of the um the event I've seen the some of the the the the the samples and I see that there's a lobster ice cream this year so I'm hopeful that everybody goes over to anigara and tries that one and as well as all of the different uh samples that are that are there uh where we land we'll be launching a Flap Book which is a play on the word flip book on November 1st where you'll be able to go through and see all of the various um recipes and and samples that are being offered at the yanagara Lobster Fest so uh we're certainly thankful that we are starting to collaborate a little bit more um in terms of bringing culture into the BVI thank you for um allowing us to have the conversation and move things forward we've talked about the museums which we have worked on over the years uh 17 18 sugarworks Museum the the um the prison museum and even called the signs that we just erected throughout the territory all of them have uh um cultural meanings on all of them concerning that that that go along with whichever Island they're on so um we're excited and hopefully we can make it bigger and better every year so thank you thank you all all distinguished panelists um I do want to quickly mention here that we will wrap the month up with one of uh another of our long-standing programs our book launch program but we couldn't resist it because this one seemed to fit our theme so well it is called I want to be a thatcher man and it's written by Mrs Johnny snibbs and I'm understanding that this would be one in a series of books about our traditional careers here in the Virgin Islands thank you everyone thank you Dr Smith and all the panelists for all that exciting information for the upcoming month of November with culture and tourism month now since it's a press conference we're going to open the floor to the press for um for the panelists answer the questions and we'll also like to ask you to give your name and the organization you represent when you ask your question so we'll invite you now to ask your questions foreign good morning everyone Kathy Richards JTV news uh first of all um we're hearing so much about books as part of this uh month of celebrations I want to find out what's the status of our main library the rutang library um that would be for me of course um that's a subject that currently follows another minister of education and culture but I want to at least give you an update from my end because I spoke about the I spoke about the national museum and you should know that um I call together all uh stakeholders and we placed a strong mandate to the Ida I want them to work as quickly as possible to come up with a design for National Museum and a national library along with the National Archives and a national art gallery so they should be coming back with designs in the short term and of course I have also put it to the minister of Education that I want to see um Library established back in in rural town and also um we we have a library as well in east end it was shifting from one building to the next and I've made it clear I want to see that some progress on that so we should be seeing an opening in East End Zone I've also made it clear that I want the the librarian Virgin Gorda to to move to a location where they have more space and that's something that I'm going to be checking with the Ministry of Education about and and there are other areas where we need to improve our library Services I'll leave those updates up to the up to the ministry okay could you say you say paying for the space there where the rotung library was upstairs it I think some some another agency uses that building okay that's on Fleming Street yeah yeah okay um we talk about the widespread of activities throughout the entire month and for the most part we would have heard of activities centered on tertola and with the exception of lobsterfest that is going to be on any Garden since that we have moved this now to a month uh why aren't we having activities on every island that is inhabited on the territory in the territory well for example when we mentioned the cultural food fair which will be held on the 25th of November um there will be three cultural food fairs so one will be on Virgin Gorda but I want to speak a little bit about that that's not just going to be a food fair what we want to do over there is we want to include an Arts exhibition with it we want to include agriculture you know agricultural display with it and in addition we want to also have these very same authors who who will be bringing their books to our book fair on the 5th we want them to make their books available for that particular food fair so it's a food fair but it's it's it's a it's more than that you know we'll have books visual art um agricultural produce and food available at the same time as we have the food fair here at the Tortola Pier Park and then in addition to that as we did last year we did this as we did last year we worked with um Jess Van Dyke and they had a food fair last year as well at the same time and we want to do that again uh Dr Smith and Dr George is could you say in in your in your understanding if the tradition of of uh the Virgin Islands is evolving in terms of our culture sounds like a question for the director of course but the um before I just wanted to add in on the previous question Kathy it's just a note that um the on the Friday um the college is um supporting the transportation of students from the outer islands around other Islands to Tortola to participate in the late first um and so Ferry and ground transportation for those students and the teachers and then on the Friday the tourist board Excursion I believe is Virgin Gorda I think pretty sure that's virgin Gordon um so that's one angle where we are trying to include um um people who may not live on Tortola in the activities of the lip Fest in particular uh with respect to the other question I mean college is not a static thing you know I mean yes we are going to we heard about the development of a national museum which is an essential way of of understanding and interpreting the path which has led us to the point that we are in today in the present time but it's important to know that culture is a fluid evolving um living um you know entity so whenever we try to freeze dry or date culture we are in effect trying to kill it and try and stop it at this particular point which is a very dangerous thing all cultures evolve and it's a healthy natural thing to ensure that continues to survive what's important though in that evolution is to maintain the Integrity of the most important threads of that culture whether that is language whether it's literature um or other types of cultural forms tangible protection of tangible Heritage the protection of intangible Heritage um and I think also wrapped up in all that is a set of values that you want to preserve the expression of our culture must evolve D you know so that that is a you know if not evolving you're dying yes and to just um follow up on that and in total agreement um yes um a culture is a way of life there's an underlying value system you have your arts or expressions and your heritage but what I want to say here now is that um we acknowledge that culture evolves and we've been speaking about that for quite a Time the realization did come though that your culture must be informed by your heritage right so it evolves but it must be informed by the Heritage so if you're then in a situation where that Heritage is threatened or not as well known as it should be and actually in the 2013 cultural policy that is stated as a major problem in the Virgin Islands that the Heritage wasn't as widely known acknowledged or respected as it ought to be but one of the guiding principles in that policy is that there must be an evolution and so with that in mind that's how we came to the the you know the decision that okay you know we we need to be clear about these traditions and I want to say further that in particular there are some traditions that move forward they are perennially existing they always exist and that happens because the society has decided that those Traditions are so important and meaningful to its identity that they can never not be and so when you see something like say the way we made our hats there's a way we can we can that we we go into the creative industry culture and tourism we now have products that that that identify and streamline our identity and we moved it right into the 21st century by branding right so in a nutshell the two go together Heritage and culture but yes we are we're always evolving thank you finally from me the sister Premiere how could you explain to us the move of uh the portfolio of culture from the from that of the education Ministry minister to that of the premieres we thought that um culture was so key to the diversification of our tourism product that would work better if it's within the same Ministry and we also have a able Junior minister in the premier's office you know you know I can assign any portfolio do I have to Junior ministers and so to be able to have the energy of a junior Minister herself who is always involved in in cultural efforts to be able to have you know same Ministry deal with the tourist board and and all matters tourism and culture will help the collaboration to be able to happen but it signals to you because of course premier's office carries with it a certain level of of weight and prominence not to say anything about the other Ministries but the move says to everybody involved look culture is something that needs to be more prominently recognized and the Minister of Finance has taken it under his portfolio because he wants to see that type of energy and focus on culture moving forward and that's going to be reflected in terms of positions at the culture Department the level of training that we expect persons in the culture Department to have the level of the projects that you see happening we spoke about National Museum it's been on the back burner it's now come to the front burner something I should have mentioned as well is festival and Fest which is on the culture we expect to see um music and cultural festivals year round though you know so this is the type of focus and energy we're going to be bringing to the cultural portfolio and no fault of anybody before but we just decided that you know it's going to get the attention the focus the money the human resources that it dissolves because it makes perfect sense and I believe that the director of Tourism really underline that point and speaking about the fact that visitors 70 of the visitors may even be more they want to have that cultural experience when they come to the Virgin Islands so it's it's time that we we our efforts correspond with that desire and need thank you so much good morning Dana Campo with the BBI Beacon uh so first off we talked about a lot of events geared towards seniors are there any particular events that would be particularly good for young children to attend and get involved with yes um uh there certainly are I can just um immediately talk about the second week um uh during which starts on the 7th of November where we would be going into the schools senior students and um presenting and doing Dynamic demonstrations as a collective story on our cultural dances certainly during the first week we mentioned um Distributing books to the schools cultural books so that they can have them in the libraries in preparation for the work we must do with the curriculum to ensure that our students are learning about our cultural heritage in the most creative of ways so you see interacting with young persons streaming throughout the first and second weeks I want to mention here now that on the 12th the event that vica the Virgin Islands communal Association is completely geared toward what I'm thinking of as a family day because you have traditional games um marbles Jacks I've read about something called chucking Cherry nuts these are traditional and they were developed here in the Virgin Islands and they're gonna be um you know all of all of them you know um you mentioned marbles Jacks Hopscotch like all of the traditional but even some that go a bit further back just introducing them there's a whole list that we received from their um proposal I I I'm excited um spoon yes yes yes I would see a carrot be yeah some of the stuff he's saying you've seen Caribbean yes and um but we'll be learning more about that so that that is a highlight for I I feel for young people and even their bonfire night where the bonfire is lit it's a tradition that has been brought back that's rather exciting there are always children out at that event I think Dr George has mentioned students that would be involved yes we are prefering in and busting in to the the Friday then to the lit Fest students from all all the secondary schools in the territory throughout the years about trying to revamp the curriculum to bring in more Vi specific culture history uh do we know where we're at with that okay so um you what everyone would have seen in the news um full steam ahead we would have seen that and so I know that I had particular interests I've had discussions with the chief education officer and the social studies officer on the Arts the Arts that is there in the in the full steam ahead um concept so very excited about that and um we've been we've proposed a as I mentioned earlier a cultural dance program now that okay that is the one art that's not really on the curriculum it's it's done in a co-curricular fashion so we in The Proposal we talked about after school activities regarding that and as soon as we can I'm hoping for the new term that we can start to implement that and then of course we're looking at another like all the Arts and how how can they really stream through but not only that we have been for some time looking at ah the telling of our story um our history and Heritage and how can we get the full resources forward and into these schools because that really is the issue the content right so for some time we were looking at a website and we we have approached the department of um do it the department of Information Technology about creating that teaching Virgin Islands history but not only that we are donating these books to the schools in the hopes of you know that they would then also have resources that have been created by local authors for some time now children's books um the last the book launch that is at the end of the month is actually a children's book so um to recap because I I think I so to recap we're looking at the Arts books history um sources content so it really is there's quite a bit and there are quite a few activities in the month as well right and I know a big focus is the pretty impressive lineup that we have for a bit uh litfest speakers so what kind of inspired this really kind of go get them approach to bringing in a strong second year of velina so I we we ran a virtual at fest last year the premier mentioned in another life he and I uh traveled quite often to the festivals and for example the Western literature conference in Miami with circles I think was just finished in the Bahamas this past week um I myself have traveled quite often to almost all the anglophone literary festivals in the Caribbean and the director of Tourism made made mention of this fact that when you go to to Bokus or Calabash the the bigger festivals people come from all over um to the festival partly because of you know what's on the program but also of course largely because of who is on the program and so for my mind I think we had a very good um lineup last year but virtually kind of course change Dynamic um I'm very fortunate to have been able to get some strong sponsors on board and that then you know created the ability for us to attract a larger pool and a stronger a strong pool of um both International and local writers many of them have work that is either just out or relatively recently out which is kind of you know prejudices the selection and also we wanted to make sure we had a very very strong Caribbean diaspora element to who our International guests were because to me it's important for promising or hopeful young local writers to see themselves in the eminent guests that we bring that we do elect to bring so you would notice that I think um there's even more scope for growth and I'm you know once we get to November 7th and I take a breath you know I'm eager to collaborate again with uh with culture with tourism I've and some of our other partners to kind of start to strategize um who the guests might be for next year because as you could imagine it's quite an expensive um Endeavor uh let's bring Nikki Giovanni or something you write the check if you write the check can we do it I'll write the check we'll bring uh one of those Larger than Life literary artisan [Music] it's two years wow yeah I think um I think the literary Festival is a large part of that um and also at having the privilege to sort of shape the conversation about how we think about the creative arts and creative Industries I know I think this year as well I think I I am one of my responsibilities is to give a an annual alarm lecture talk or or address things to correct or um which kind of surrounds those issues so a lot of the things that we've been talking about over the past several years I see starting to come to light and I'm pretty happy to see them and I know uh Kathy had already brought up the library and one of the biggest issues is trying to get adequate funding to move forward with that in Road town is that something you're hoping to prioritize in the next budget cycle or yeah short answer yes you know it's a priority for me um to see us move forward with um the having a librarian real town um I've instructed a Ministry to make sure that we make that happen and also to get the designs done for the National Library so you should see in the budget cycle that we'll allocate money for for getting the designs done and once the designs are done I'm going to move swiftly to to getting the project Finance most likely by by loan funding and we'll even seek um whatever donor funding is available to get that to get that project done and I know that uh our Premiere is also a poet are you planning on getting involved in that way at all this year I haven't been invited to to share my and I really love poetry and you know to be on such a prominent lineup would have been very nice but you know maybe next year maybe next year and then no but um seriously I'm I'm traveling to I'm traveling to the UK on November 5th and coming back on the 14th so I'm I'm missing some of the activities but whatever activities I can attend I'm certainly will attend and and just show my support as everyone else and if there's opportunities I have to check the schedule for any kind of little Open Mic poetry I certainly will will probably give up one piece or two regarding Food Fest um do we know if there's going to be any sort of entrance fee or is there going to be any other fees for this month aside from the workshops in the link uh no no no not at this time we're not planning to charge for fungi first and then a last question about Lobster Lobster which everybody's really excited about um I saw that there might be some concern about getting enough hotel reservations taxi reservations do you have any recommendations for people who are hoping to attend this event absolutely correct we're hearing that all the car rentals as well as all the hotels are completely booked out um as far as recommendations go I cannot recommend anything because the places is this book though but um but but one of one of the things that um is possible is maybe persons May team up together and and get a yachting go up for the for the weekend that's something uh to think about uh and the ferry service going to and from Tortola to um is quite consistent so even though there may not be any more rooms you can still go back and forth between islands and enjoy the Lobster Fest all right thank you very much on that very note sorry about this on that very note what about airlift during that period we haven't heard about any um Charters coming over for the lab surfaces yet but uh in our next meeting that we're having we're going to figure out if that is actually happening at this time but we haven't heard of any Charters yet to any other no okay um thank you everyone again um for uh participating in the panel discussion It's a Wonderful group of people to be working with if there are no further questions I believe that that will bring a press conference to an end okay yes indeed thank you very much Dr Smith and the rest of the panel um and the audience I just want to highlight who our panelists were as a reminder we had the premier Wheatley Minister for culture and tourism as well and the junior Minister for tourism now for culture as well honorable Alvaro Maduro Keynes uh director of culture Dr Smith director of the BBI tourist board Mr McCoy and president of the hlscc Dr George's and um we also want to thank you the audience listening and viewing and encourage you to always stay tuned for all the current information from the government of the Virgin Islands by way of our website bvi.gov.vg on Facebook and Twitter at BVI government and on Instagram at gisbvi I'm Desiree Smith and thank you for joining us and have a great rest of the day

2022-11-04 20:09

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