Glimpses of indentureship: Traditional culture and agriculture in Kernahan Village in Nariva

Indian Arrival Day commemorative magazine 2010

Indo-Caribbean Cultural Centre (ICC) is proud to announce the publication of its latest magazine commemorating Indian Heritage Month (May 2010) in Trinidad and Tobago (Caribbean). The theme of the magazine which marks the arrival of East Indians/South Asians from India to the Caribbean during indentureship (1838-1917) is “Glimpses of indentureship: Traditional culture and agriculture in Kernahan Village in Nariva.”

It is estimated that there are approximately 60 households in the isolated village that is almost exclusively populated by people of East Indian descent. The villagers were predominantly Hindus, but the majority of them have converted to the Pentecostal faith. There are now two churches and one Hindu-based Sai Baba Centre. Most of the inhabitants catch conch and cascadura and cultivate short-term cash crops such as watermelons for their livelihood. While there is a community centre and a kindergarten, the area is not served by a public school. Electricity was introduced in 2000, but the area is yet to be served with pipe borne-water. The quality of life and living conditions have improved considerably in Kernahan since the first settlers came mainly from Penal in the 1960s.

Read Online

June 2010
11 x 8 ½ inches
72 pages with advertisements and articles
ISSN 1683-4143
Glossy pages and cover

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • About Indian Arrival Day in Trinidad and Tobago
  • Glimpses of indentureship - Editorial
  • Greetings from the Minister of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs - The Honourable Marlene McDonald
  • Greetings from the High Commissioner of India - His Excellency Malay Mishra
  • Kernahan – next to the village of Cascado
  • Nariva Swamp – a diverse fresh-water wetland
  • “We used to catch cascadu.”
  • “Sheep are easier than goats to mind.”
  • “I was minding goats and cattle for a long time.”
  • The community [Kernahan]
  • “Long time in the 1970s…”
  • The lotus is one of the most celebrated flowers.
  • “Almost everybody here plants watermelon.”
  • “We have to use manure to make the land fertile.”
  • “During the crop time people would plant watermelon.”
  • Indians were pioneers in Kernahan
  • “We have pay plenty money to plough the land.”
  • Indians in Kernahan caught fish
  • Casting a fish net…
  • “Those who eat the cascadura…”
  • The cascadura (Hoplosternum littorale)
  • Water buffaloes (“Bisons”) are used
  • Documentary film “Nariva must not die”
  • “I was born in Penal Rock Road.”
  • “What I like about Kernahan …”
  • “I was 18 years old and married …”
  • “We had a tractor pool …”
  • There are about 100 households in Kernahan
  • “When we first came in the 1970s …”
  • “When I first came to live here …”
  • “We grow bodi, cucumbers…”
  • The nesting time for black conchs
  • “In the 1960s, we used a raft.”
  • The French West Indians
  • Children of Kernahan Village
  • Anacondas are large, non-venomous snakes
  • “When we first went to Kernahan …”