Last evening the Umana Yana was packed to capacity as participants of this year’s Mashramani events flocked the venue to witness the presentation of awards to the winners of the various Mash competitions pulled off by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Education. The latter was responsible for the annual Children’s parade and the essay competition.
“Mash is multi-dimensional, and this is not a Ministry thing this is all of us participating to make this a success and without your help we wouldn’t have a Mashramani and every year when we pull this off, it is not the Ministry pulling this off, it is Guyana that is on show and its team Guyana that has to do the work,” emphasized the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony while addressing the large gathering at this year’s Mash Awards.
He added that the more contributions made the celebration would get better and better each year. Minister Anthony recognized that the participants, designers, revelers, business community, and the Mash Committee made significant contributions which resulted in the success of this year’s Republic anniversary celebrations.
It is anticipated that for the 45th Republic anniversary celebrations in 2015 that the activities would be done on a larger scale. Minister Anthony encouraged the gathering to not be complacent with already exists but to look at ways to make things better.
“One of the things that we want to do, is by next month to have a set of stakeholder consultations,” he said. This is in an effort to reach all the contributors of the celebrations to get their views and recommendations on how the Mash parade can be improved. Guyanese are urged to participate in the upcoming consultations so that there can be a concerted effort for the improvement of the Mashramani celebrations and parade.
The Minister also recalled the hard work put into the organization/coordinating of the Republic celebrations by the Mash Committee which not only included persons from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport but had members from the other sister Ministries, Non-Governmental Organizations, civil society and corporate Guyana.
While highlighting the high points of the celebrations, Minister Anthony pointed out that during February 81 new songs were composed, produced and released by Guyanese musicians. He emphasized that this achievements represents who we are as a people.
With regards to the Children’s Mash Parade, the Minister commended the Education Ministry and the Unit of Allied Arts for pulling a successful parade which rivals the adult parade. The steel pan competition was another high-point in the celebrations.
Minister Anthony explained that the proceeds from the competition is used to purchase a set of steel pans for a school or community to start their own band. This approach has been done for 3-4 years now, and the result has been the resuscitation of steel pan in Guyana. One community which benefit from this programme is Buxton on the East Coast, and this year the Buxton Spice Steel Pan Orchestra was one of the winners in the competition.
Another event that was well received was the Literary Fair hosted in the Main Street Avenue by the University of Guyana Library and the National Library. Minister Anthony noted that this event should become a fixture on the Mash Calendar.
The Republic Lecture, done by Professor Clem Seecharan this year, was another event that received riveting reviews. That lecture entitled “The El Dorado Complex in the Shaping of the Indo-Guyanese: A Revisionist Perspective” looked at the ideas about the Indian background and the context of Indian immigrant in this country and the nature of the relationship between African and Indians in Guyana.
While in Guyana, Professor Seecharan presented two other lecturers – the first on the evolution of the Everest Cricket Club and the other on the development of West Indian cricket.
Some of the other events were the exhibitions at the National Museum and the National Art Gallery, child art competition, flag raising, soca, calypso and chutney competitions, and the regional mash parades.
This year, Mashramani was celebrated under the theme “Cultural Folklore: Celebrating 44.”
http://culture.mcys.gov.gy/mash-is-multi-dimensional-minister-anthony-at-2014-mash-awards/