Barbados' Indigenous Sport and Landship Movement Nominated for UNESCO Cultural Heritage List

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Barbados’ indigenous sport, road tennis, and the Barbados Landship Movement, a major part of this island’s ancestral ties to Africa, will be nominated for inscription on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Culture, Senator Dr. Shantal Munro-Knight, made the announcement recently as she addressed the official launch of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Committee Public Relations Campaign, at the Barbados Museum and Historical Society

“We have much to share and to give to the world as small as we are.  We are elevating road tennis and the Landship to be inscribed because we understand the value that we have.  Very often, we have the things that we ourselves take them for granted.  But these are the things that we have to…claim ownership of and that is very, very critical because very often people will come and see the value of what we have and then claim it.”

Senator Munro-Knight stressed that the inscription is “our claim of ownership on what we have developed and what we will give to the world”.

She also alluded to a partnership with the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology and with a local hotel to restore and preserve artifacts.

The Minister added officials would travel to various communities across the island, work with the private sector as well as development associations to build awareness at the policy level regarding the importance of the inscription.

Speaking to the importance of the launch, the Minister stressed that it was intended to educate the public about the significance of intangible culture.

And therefore, the intangible cultural heritage is critical in raising awareness not only for ourselves, but also…for the generations that we are to shepherd….  Very often, we have embraced the knowledge that we have.  Most of us that are here, understand cultural value, but I always say the true test of how well a society understands itself and knows itself is the extent to which it is able to transmit that knowledge to others, to our children, and their grandchildren as well,”  Munro-Knight stated.

“So this educational program is really not about now, but it’s about forward-looking, and that has to be the litmus test for the ICH committee and the work that it will do.”