Dear Editor,
The recent unveiling of a Warao statue in San Fernando is only the latest instance of botched iconography conscripted by the government that has failed to live up to the expectations of the people it is meant to represent. While I do not want to come down hard on the artists who are doing their best to come up with designs that they can appreciate for themselves, these are not meant to be interpretative pieces for which people are meant to think about. When creating national iconography, the best advice I think should be given to any artist would be for them to create something that is uniquely distinctive but must remain instantly recognizable to what it’s meant to represent. And if this simple instruction is followed, then you would not end up in a situation where a statue meant to depict an entire race of people comes out looking completely opposite to what it’s supposed to look like.
The real issue though, comes down to the thought and research that has been put into these projects and their failures appear to be a lack of both. It appears in the case of the Warao statue that no Indigenous people were consulted nor was their history studied well enough for the statue to properly reflect their culture. And in the case of the recent “redesign” of the Coat of Arms, I am not sure that the jeweller hired to undertake the project was either knowledgeable in or put any research into the art of Heraldry in order to complete the project. I say this because following the revelation of the “completed redesign” of the Coat of Arms and the national backlash it received, I reached out to several international experts in the field of Heraldry, including the Director of the Heraldic Institute in Germany, for their thoughts and none of them were kind.
According to these experts, there is visual disharmony with the integration of a steelpan that is drawn in a modern design style, which clashes with every other icon on the Coat of Arms, which was left intact from the original design, which keeps their hand-painted looks even when updated in the new design. But more importantly, there is a formal heraldic language that should have been adhered to in terms of symbolism and composition, but this is all disrupted by the inclusion of the steelpan which does not conform to the old design, and as such, the entire crest needed updating to incorporate the new elements better. And it is because these principles were not adhered to, the entire “redesign” appears unnatural to even a regular individual with no intimate knowledge of the heraldic arts.
Similarly, the Warao statue includes many features that are not associated with the Wārao people, and instead appears to be an amalgamation of a Rastafarian hairstyle, Aztec garb and an Incan headdress, something that could have been avoided had there been any real attempt to consult with either the Warao people or historians. Of course, the more cynical person in me might also think that the statue of the First Peoples in San Fernando is meant to reflect the history that the PNM want to believe as well, which appears to be hinted at by the Mayor of San Fernando who said “We are giving prominence and respect to all the persons who contributed towards the development of San Fernando.” And here’s the thing, that in itself isn’t a bad idea, but if that was the intention then the statue should not have been labelled as one meant to depict the Warao people alone, as the depiction that we remain with is insulting to the people it is meant to celebrate and represent.
There has always been a feeling among the PNM government that the people of Trinidad and Tobago must be grateful for anything they receive, no matter the quality, and for this reason, much of their work has been subpar at best. But when it comes to the symbolism and iconography meant to elicit national pride among the general populace, then the standard of the work must be elevated for there to be any celebration. The fact that the PNM have undertaken these initiatives with the same level of disinterest with which they have approached everything else over the past ten years demonstrates that their only concern is in replacing our existing icons with no care about what is being installed in their place.
Best regards,
Ravi Balgobin Maharaj
