Akawini communi
Located 60 to 70 miles from Charity in the Lower Pomeroon River sits the pristine Amerindian Community of Akawini, home to native Caribs, Warraus and Arawaks.
The village on Wednesday last held its annual Heritage Celebrations in grand style on the island of Barakaro and persons from as far as East Bank Demerara were in attendance. To get to Akawini, one has to endure a boat ride for some two to three hours down the Pomeroon River then into the Aka-wini Creek, but the long distance seemed short, as the scenery and quietness of the Pomeroon River gave a sense of tranquility.
The celebrations kicked off just after 2:00pm with a cultural presentation organized by the community. Traditional foods, drinks, art and craft were on display and for sale at the event.
The Amerindian culture was indeed celebrated as persons gyrated to folk songs and ate traditional dishes such as Fish Pepperpot, Smoked meat Pepperpot, Haimara [sweet water fish] Pepperpot, Wild Hog Pepperpot, Lukanani Pepperpot and Labba Pepperpot. Local drinks on display included such favourites as Fly (potato drink), Bambali, Casseri, Piwari and Corn wine.
Persons had the opportunity to take part in games and competitions which included archery, tug-ofwar, bird naming, animal naming and Fly drinking.
The name Akawini is an Arawak name which is broken into two, as explained by Toshao David Wilson. ‘Akya’ being a tree which is seen along the banks of the creek which leads into the community, and ‘Wini’ which signifies the many turns one has to go through in the creek to reach any one of the islands located there.
Akawini is divided into four sections; Front View, School Island, Ykinipa and Barakaro and is home to some 1,200 people. The community has one Primary School, a Primary Annex, Nursery School and a Health Centre.
Speaking with Stabroek News, Toshao Wilson spoke of the many difficulties faced by the Akawini Village, one of the most important being the shortage of trained teachers in the community.
Presently, there are only two trained teachers which according to Wilson leads to the underperformance of students since teachers are tasked with having to teach three different levels of classes at the same time.
“At this year’s Common Entrance Examination, twenty seven students wrote but only seven goes to school. That means twenty are not going to school. The main reason is because parents cannot afford it, or they do go to school sometimes for only two weeks, and most times the girls who would have to stay in the dorms start behaving strange and their parents take them out of school and are afraid to send them back so they are just at home.
Main plea
“But it still goes back to us not having enough teachers. Right now the main plea to the government is to send teachers here. Our children can do well but they need the qualified persons to help and guide them. When the president [Granger] was here in 2015 I made a proposal to him to start a secondary class which would avoid children from having to travel way out on the coast to attend school or those who are of age would not have to sit at home and do nothing. We are still waiting to see the secondary class implemented because I think that is very im
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