Caribs to canoe from Antigua to VI

[KarenS]

For the first time in over 300 years a Carib Indian canoe, with a crew of Kalinago Caribs from Dominica, will sail up the Leeward Islands from Antigua to the Virgin Islands. Their mission is to draw attention to the survival and resurgence of their culture and to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Gli Gli’s creation.

Gli Gli is a traditional 35’ dug out sailing canoe. She will be crewed by 12 men and two women from the Kalinago Carib Territory in Dominica. On the 6 May she will sail from Antigua to the islands of Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Barths, St. Martin, St. Maarten and Anguilla, before crossing the Anegada passage to the British Virgin Islands.

The various heritage societies of these islands will be hosting the Gli Gli’s visit. At each stop along the way the crew will be giving talks about Carib culture, performing traditional Carib music, demonstrating their unique craft-making techniques, and showing the BBC documentary, The Quest of the Carib Canoe, a film about Gli Gli’s historic sail from Dominica to Guyana 10 years ago, which symbolically reunited the Caribs of Dominica with their ancestral relatives in the southern Caribbean and Guyana.

For the full article go here.
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Karen for Caribbean-On-Line.com