Editorial

Reclaiming the festival

Some people describe The Caribbean Camera as the “Carnival paper.”

Of course, we do publish more news about the Toronto Caribbean carnival than any other paper in Canada’s largest city.

And for us, Caribana is never a forgotten word.

But while we present our readers with a wide range of stories of special interest to the Caribbean community, we make no apologies for our coverage of cultural matters of which Caribana and the carnival are  important aspects.

Yes, carnival comes early to The Caribbean Camera. Absolutely no doubt about that.

In this issue of paper there are two carnival-related stories.  One highlights the 2019 launching of  Tribal Carnival’s band which will be at the grand parade on Lakeshore Boulevard come August 3.

And the other is the latest news from the Caribana Arts Group (CAG) under the leadership of Geraldine Stafford who continues to speaks the language of reclamation.

We believe that what Stafford has to say is important to everyone in our community who takes pride in our Caribbean carnival  and the development of our culture.

As  we noted in an editorial back in February of this year shortly after she was elected chair of the CAG, Stafford  has big plans for the  organization. She  made it quite clear  that  the “foremost mandate” of the  CAG was to “reclaim ownership of the festival.”

But she  recognizes the challenges ahead.

In a timely news release this week, just after the first carnival band launching for 2019 took place, Stafford reminded us  that the carnival parade is  only one of the cultural expressions of Caribbean culture, albeit one of the most prolific and well known.

But as she pointed out, it should not be regarded as the only component of Caribana.

Stafford also said that she did not believe that reclamation has been effectively defined and suggested that the CAG must put a bona fide plan in place to reclaim the festival “in our defined form, on our own terms.”

And towards this end the CAG has renewed its call for membership as well as for greater community and youth engagement.

Noting its priorities, the CAG said in its news release that  “a strong and stable organization is evidenced by its membership.”

It also  noted that “building partnerships and alliances is key” and that ” a vision for the future is not possible  without youth engagement.”

But as Stafford said, “before a reclamation discussion or mandate can ever be realised, certain housekeeping items must be in place.”

She pointed out that it is “unreasonable to speak to such an extremely multi- faceted matter and in some respects a matter that would alter the historical narrative, without a full evaluation of the challenges and opportunities at hand.”

Stafford explained that the CAG needs the confidence of its membership, community and Caribana stakeholders to achieve any  mandate and that under her leadership it’s time for the CAG to continue and in some cases, start the conversation.”

It’ s clearly an important conversation and  we are pleased to note that Stafford is planning to meet later this month with Joe Halstead, the chairman of the Festival Management Corporation, which is running the Caribbean Carnival.

We have no doubt whatsoever that the discussions at that meeting will be of great interest to mas’ aficionados who are concerned about the future of the Toronto Caribbean carnival.