National Awards Honor Belize’s Cultural Champions

Belize’s rich cultural heritage is being celebrated as the National Celebrations Commission announces this year’s first three recipients of the Creative and Cultural Excellence Awards. The honorees are being recognized for their lasting contributions to Belizean literature, cultural preservation and the protection of indigenous knowledge. Poet and author Margaret Reynolds is this year’s recipient of the Zee Edgell Award for Literary Arts, while Master Drummer and cultural ambassador Emmeth Young receives the Leela Vernon Award for his work safeguarding and promoting cultural heritage. And Yucatec Maya leader and educator Felicita Cantun is the recipient of the Don Elijio Panti Award, honoring her efforts to protect and develop indigenous knowledge and keep Maya traditions alive. Here are Margaret Reynolds and Emmeth Young.

 

Margaret Reynolds, Recipient, Zee Edgell Award

“So I started writing as young as nine years old. I started experimenting with poetry. My writing should increase your view about how others feel. It is basically leaning towards teaching you to be empathetic. 501, from way back, we had the poet society. I was a founding member in that. In June of 2013, we had our first show. From the very first night, we had a crowd, and the exchange was great. I met a lot of new poets that night, younger poets, and from that moment on, the decision was made. Zee Edgell, she’s a painter with words. Her writing, it brings you in. Right, it brings you in. So when I heard about the award, I felt really good.”

 

Emmeth Young, Recipient, Leela Vernon Award

“Culture is very special and unique and culture is what drive a community. If you don’t know your culture, then you are totally lost. I was a lead drummer for Lila Vernon Dance Company, the Ebolites. For me this is a very special time and moment to know that I’ve come so far.  It was amazing to, to work with her and she give me a lot of knowledge about myself, about culture, and the importance of culture. I love to share the cultural knowledge, whether it’s drumming, cooking, farming, fishing. Those are our tradition of the village that need to live on. And by teaching the youths, this is the only way that it’s going to live on, so that’s what I do.”

 

The awards celebrate Belizeans whose work continues to shape, preserve and pass on the cultural identity of the nation. More awardees will be announced in the coming days.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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