Georgetown: Minister of Culture Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony recently visited and inspected the site earmarked for the erection of the 5th of May monument at Palmyra, Region Six, at the head of the junction, east of the Berbice River Bridge.
The Minister was accompanied by Permanent Secretary, Alfred King, Indian High Commissioner to Guyana Venkatachalam Mahalingam and Deputy Commissioner, Therat Singh, and Sculptors Philbert Gajadhar and Winslow Craig.
This project which is supported by the Government of India will be erected to commemorate the first arrival of East Indian indentured labourers to Guyana, on May 8, 1838. On that day, they arrived in Guyana to work on the sugar plantations.
During that period, the first ship, the SS Whitby, with 128 East Indians aboard, landed at Plantation Highbury on the east bank of the Berbice River, about 20 miles from New Amsterdam.
Minister Anthony said that last year Guyana celebrated 175 years of Indian immigrants’ arrival in Guyana, and the Ministry thought it fit to erect a monument in honour of those labourers who would have worked and contributed to Guyana’s economy.
Guysuco has supported the project through the donation of the land on which the monument will be erected.
“We thought it fit to erect the monument in Berbice that depicts the East Indian immigrants to Guyana, and we have been talking to a number of stakeholders about where to place this particular monument,” Minister Anthony stated.
Currently, works are in progress at the site with respect to draining the land, following which, landfilling and landscaping will commence.
Minister Anthony said that he anticipates that the monument will be completed by May 2015, in celebration of the 177th anniversary of Indian arrival to local shores.
Meanwhile, the Indian High Commissioner expressed satisfaction with the location, noting that it is at a strategic point where persons can see it as they traverse Regions Five and Six.
The monument which was designed by Gajadhar and Craig, will be sculpted in bronze, will be 12 feet high, 12 feet wide, double life size, and mounted on a 9-foot high base.
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