The issue of maintaining Cayman’s cultural traditions was raised a couple of times last year.
There was the question of whether Cayman should alter its laws to allow supermarkets and other retail stores to open on Sundays.
There was also the question of whether Cayman should alter the Liquor Licensing Law and the Music and Dancing Law to allow the New Year’s Eve celebrations to go on past midnight this year.
In both cases, the need to maintain Cayman traditions was cited as the reason changes should not be made to the existing laws.
Resisting legislative change is one way to maintain cultural traditions, and although it affects what people can legally do, it doesn’t necessarily affect they way they think.
More importantly, the laws cannot force people to actively embrace the maintenance of cultural traditions.
We can see this when it comes to the making of traditional handcrafts, which is becoming a dying art with fewer and fewer young people learning the skills of generations past.
Because of concerns that craft skills are dying out, some have debated whether traditional arts and crafts should be taught as part of the mandatory curriculum at the government schools.
Forcing all children to do a craft they might not want to do is not the answer, however.
Cayman’s children should be exposed to making traditional crafts, certainly, but if the skills are to survive, it will be for one of two reasons: because some people develop a passion for craft making and take satisfaction from creating it, or; there is a more tangible reason for learning the skills.
Past generations developed their craft skills out of need, but in today’s modern society, there is little real need for these crafts.
Young people are less likely to perfect craft skills if the only reason they are doing it is for posterity or exhibitions at Pirates Week Heritage Days.
However, give people the ability to earn a good living by selling traditional crafts to someone – tourists for example – and suddenly there is a need for the skill again, albeit a different need than in years past.
Places like the Cayman Craft Market offer such an opportunity, but it needs craft-inclined Caymanians who actually want to earn a living in such a way.
That could be easier said than done in a generation of lawyers, accountants, bankers and merchants, but it still might be the best bet to keep traditional Caymanian crafting skills alive.
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