The first draft of the island’s National Cultural Policy is set to be completed by the end of August. Consultants rapped-up a two-week long consultation series with the public last week to compile information pertinent to the formulation of the Policy.
Lead Consultant Sir Howard Fergus confirmed that work has already begun on the first draft of the policy. He believes that the process will move along more speedily now that the consultation phase has concluded.
He stressed that these consultations are important if the policy is to be called a national policy and that it must represent the desire of the people.
Meanwhile Coordinator of Culture, Mr Herman Cupid Francis expressed satisfaction that was met the objective of the consultation process.
He said, “The response was very good in terms of content; I think we have achieved most of what we wanted to do in terms of getting consensus on certain issues, but there are some other issues that we have not gotten consensus on and may probably have to make a judgement.”
However he believed that the town-hall sessions could have been better attended, “We got a lot from the people who have attended, however the numbers could have been better. I think the town-hall meetings in particular could have been better. But we have achieved what we turned out to achieve. But the town-hall was intended to be the drag-net to ensure that everybody gets a chance to give their input,” said the Coordinator.
The consultant team was able to gather pertinent information during their sessions with media personnel, youth groups across the island, local cultural practitioners, teachers, the Evergreen Senior Citizen’s Group, Montserrat Tourist Board and the National Trust as well as members of the general public. They all provided invaluable information on how the policy can best serve the country.
Each session was guided with a series of questions designed to harness views on the content of the policy, which included, people’s understanding of the term culture, aspects and elements of Montserrat culture, the loss, dilution or diminishing of local culture, the impact of outside cultures; the inclusion of outside cultures in the national policy and culture as a source of revenue for the economy.
Sir Howard Fergus is leading consultant in the process with a team of key resource persons to include Dr. Clarice Barnes, Ms Ann Marie Dewar, and Mr. Alric Taylor. Mr. Herman Francis is the technical representative on the team from the Ministry of Culture.
The group is charged with making an assessment of the state of Culture on Montserrat with the goal of formulating a National Cultural Policy that will set the framework for the development and planning of Culture for at least the next ten years.
The last of a series of consultations with the public was concluded this week, initiating the formulation of the first draft of the National Cultural Policy.
Emerging from the sessions are pertinent ideas, suggestion and desires of the people as it relates to Montserrat culture. The policy is expected to include guidelines on the preservation, restoration, documentation and marketing of Montserrat culture.
Lead Consultant Sir Howard Fergus confirmed that work has already begun on the first draft of the policy. He believes that the process will move along more speedily now that the consultation phase has concluded. He stressed that these consultants are important if the policy is to be called a national policy. He explained that it must represent the desire of the people.
The consultations were guided with a series of questions designed to harness views on what the policy should include, for instance, people’s understanding of the term culture, aspects and elements of Montserrat culture, the loss, dilution or diminishing of local culture, the impact of outside cultures and the inclusion of outside cultures in the national policy.
Sir Howard Fergus is leading the process with a team of key resource persons to include Dr. Clarice Barnes, Ms Ann Marie Dewar, and Mr. Alric Taylor. Mr. Herman Francis is the technical representative on the team from the Ministry of Culture.
The group is charged with making an assessment of the state of Culture on Montserrat with the goal of formulating a National Cultural Policy that will set the framework for the development and planning of Culture for at least the next ten years.
Out of the policy should come recommendations for institutional arrangements which would facilitate the implementation of the policy; identification of possible sources of funds or initiatives which would provide resources to implement the national plan; and broad based mechanisms which would be required for execution of the National Cultural Policy.
The draft is set to be completed by the end of August. Once completed, it will be presented to the Government of Montserrat for final approval.
