Santa Rosa First Peoples Centre

This centre contains items from Arima's native history, displays of the descendants of the Caribs in Arima and native items for purchase. It is the home and meeting place of The Santa Rosa First Peoples (formerly the Santa Rosa Carib Community) and events commemorating Amerindian Heritage Week are held here.

The Members of the Santa Rosa First Peoples are involved in the following activities:
. Preserving the “cassava culture”: preparation of cassava bread, farine, and cassareep, using traditional instruments such as the manare (sifter), the wareware (fan), the matapíor sebucán (strainer)and aripo (griddle).
. Maintaining knowledge of using the terite reed in weaving the above mentioned manare and matapí, along with “finger catchers” (a woven, springy item such that an inserted finger can easily be pushed in but cannot be pulled out), as well as a variety of baskets, mats, carrying cases and fans.
. Sustaining knowledge of the use of mamu vines in the making of heavy strength baskets.
. Teaching classes in weaving for visiting groups of students, school children, and Girl Guides.
. Preserving methods of indigenous home construction: walls made of tapia (mud, grass and pebbles, on a frame which is plastered over); roofs thatched from timite and carat palms; internal partitions made from plaited coconut palms; floors made of compressed earth which are “washed” over (lipé) with mud.
. Preserving and reviving “arts of the forest” such as hunting, herbal medicines, harvesting of forest fruits, nuts and building materials.
. Revival of the Smoke Ceremony: a ceremony led by a shaman designed to pay homage to our ancestors, worship the earth, and seek the guidance and blessings of the Great Spirit.
. Maintaining the Santa Rosa Festival: though a Catholic feast, the Carib Community has historically been, and continues to be, in charge of some of the main preparations for, and performance of, the Festival. As the Carib President routinely stresses, “This is what brings the Carib Community together”. Maintaining an involvement in Parang music, with two (2) Parang bands tied to the Carib Community: Los Niños del Mundo, led by Shaman Cristo Adonis, and Los Niños de Santa Rosa, managed by Carib Secretary Jaqueline Khan until 1999.
. Talking to visiting school groups, journalists, and foreign researchers about the Amerindian heritage of Trinidad and the struggle to maintain an Amerindian cultural presence in the social and intellectual life of a modern and multi-ethnic Trinidad and Tobago.

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