By Rebecca Bird and Shanda Gallego
A Cayman restaurant owner has decided to host a ‘heritage day’ event after district cultural celebrations were dropped from this year’s Pirates Week schedule.
The series of events across Grand Cayman were pulled from the line-up, “due to time and budget constraints”, according to festival organisers last week.
Luigi Moxam, owner of Cayman Cabana on the George Town waterfront, expressed his upset at the decision in a public Facebook post on Saturday, 4 Nov., in which he announced his own counter event.
“There’s a lot to be discussed about this decision to cancel heritage days and the lack of enthusiasm and deserved criticism of the planning and management of Pirates Week,” he said.
“But one thing I’m not going to be quiet about is people justifying excuses for a lack of vision, aptitude and management of planning Pirates Week festivities to be symbolic of a lack of culture and heritage in the Cayman Islands community.”
Moxam told the Compass he didn’t expect the post to garner community support for the return of the 40-plus-year tradition.
“It’s really inspiring and really good to see the engagement of the community, and the majority of it isn’t negative, it’s really like, ‘what we gon’ do?’ I’m glad this conversation is happening,” he said.
“At the end of the day, [for] our people, community, country and Caymanians, time and budget constraints will never be a reason to not celebrate, represent and show up for our culture and heritage; when it comes to the opportunity for our kids to learn that appetite and have it imprinted, we are who we are.”
In the past, heritage days have given each district the opportunity to celebrate their unique culture. They feature traditional crafts, artefacts, rope making, thatch plaiting, traditional games, dance shows, performances, storytelling and local cuisine.
Moxam said the dropping of the official heritage days during Pirates Week seemed to indicate there is no value in investing in protecting national traditions, “as if it’s some kind of optional transaction”.
“We can’t have our next generation of youth caught up in this negative narrative about lack of time to celebrate our culture.”
He added, “There’s artists that have been working on their craft for three months, people have been buying stuff for food, there’s people that come out once a year; they have other stuff going on, but they love to do this. It’s their passion and way to give back to the community and sell food and share their craft, and share what it’s about, their districts, and uniqueness about our communities.
“There are so many things that everyone is doing now that we all sit back and appreciate what makes our culture unique. We have the benefit of experiencing that. How dare [we] cancel that – we don’t [do] that, we show up, and we were raised to respect our heritage and those who came before us.”
Moxam said his event will take place at Cayman Cabana, or possibly at the old Tower Building parking lot across the street, on 18-30 Nov.
“This is about a bigger picture where we need to provide a platform to educate people on who, what, and where that is relevant to our culture and heritage around all three islands, so my thought is to create a ‘heritage hub’ at Cayman Cabana. We’re inviting any and everyone who wishes to exhibit, volunteer, sponsor, participate, share our culture and heritage, let’s make it happen.”
He said he wanted to provide a central place for the people who usually show up for the heritage days at the various districts.
“Let’s have an exhibit, a showcase, an expo of whomever and whatever is out there, that we can showcase our heritage,” he said. “By educating people and having tangible experiences, a lot of things can come from that. We’re going to create a cultural heritage treasure map. Over the next few weeks, we’ll host heritage days at Cabana and we’re hoping that people will then go into the districts and challenge ourselves to learn about our communities.”
Anyone who would like to sell food, arts or crafts at ‘Our Cayman Heritage Day can email Cayman Cabana at [email protected], with their name, district, what they would like to sell and contact information.
Pirates Week was founded 46 years ago to draw tourists to Grand Cayman during what is historically the slow season. It has in the past featured activities such as float parades, costume contests, firework shows, various sporting events and district heritage days.
Pirates Week 2023 continues with George Town events through 19 Nov. and Cayman Brac’s festivities from 24-26 Nov. Check out Instagram @cayman.heritage.days for more updates.
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