More Private Sector Support Urged For Kweyol Heritage Month

At the launch of Kweyol Heritage Month on Sunday, September 22, 2024, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Investment, Creative Industry, and Broadcasting, Dr. Ernest Hilaire, called for more support and initiatives from the private sector. Kweyol Heritage Month is held in Saint Lucia in October and is a major cultural event that derives economic activity in the country. On Tuesday, Saint Lucia Times caught up with the director of the Monsignor Patrick Anthony Folk Research Center (FRC), Melchoir Henry, as the month-long celebrations unfold. Henry highlighted the packed calendar of activities for Kweyol Heritage Month this year as well as the lack of financial support the event was receiving from the private sector. “What we have done is to prepare a calendar reflecting our own activities, those being staged by the host communities as well as some fringe events and fund raisers being put on by private groups and entities,” Henry said. “So what we now find is that the FRC itself is engaged in fewer activities and this allows us to lend more support to the community events. For example we used to do our own Kweyol story telling, but if a community is already doing this, we would...