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Guyana 2006

The Alves family had just added a finely wrought suite of white-painted straw furniture to their living room. Judith Alves told her husband, Jaime, she would enhance the beauty of the furniture.

She did by adding seat and back cushions to make them more comfortable. The couple's three children delightfully took turns sitting and commenting how inviting the chairs are. They all expressed satisfaction in the new living room seating arrangement.

However, Michael, the youngest, in his ever quizzical manner, asked from which furniture store the chairs were bought and from what material the chairs were made.

"Mom, where does all the straw and cane to make these chairs come from?" asked Michael. "Ask your father. He is from the North West region and knows all about the material used in making this type of furniture," Mom replied.

When Michael consulted his father Jaime, he was promised a tour of Stabroek Market wharf where boats from the North West region sail into port Georgetown early Thursday morning. The Easter school holidays had just begun and on the following Thursday morning, when Jaime and Michael arrived at the Stabroek Market, the gates were not yet open.

On Thursday and Saturday mornings farmers and vendors would seize the opportunity to sell their products outside the municipal structure. During market days, farmers from the rural areas bring a variety of fruits, green vegetables and ground provision and offer these items for sale.

"Lets see if the back gates are open" said Jaime, and the father and son hurried through the crowd to the wharf entrance at the rear of the market, which had been opened a little earlier. Michael looked in astonishment at three sloops bobbing at their moorings alongside the market wharf.

He had never seen a launch close up and it was a spectacle he thought to share with his classmates. The crew of the sloops had already begun to discharge their cargo of agricultural products. Jaime and Michael stood for a moment looking at how the men discharged tons of cargo.

Two crew members of one sloop were unloading cocoanuts by throwing up two at a time in quick succession from the cargo hold to another crew member on the deck who would catch them and in turn throw them to a buyer on the wharf. The latter threw the coconuts in a large wooden crate placed on a lorry.

Such unloading exercises could last for several hours, before the boats return to the hinterland. On that day, other boats were discharging plantains and bananas, one bunch at a time, also to buyers on the wharf.

"Look, Daddy!" exclaimed Michael. "Those men must be very strong to throw up a bunch of bananas and plantains to one another." Jaime was familiar with the method the sailors used to discharge their cargo, as he had some experience doing so when he was a youngster. "I did this same job during my school days," Jaime told Michael. "It's an art, not strength."

"What! You threw up coconuts and bananas one time! You surprise me, dad," retorted Michael, looking at his father admiringly. "If you look carefully at the launches," Jaime pointed out "you will see why we came here. Look. In the cabins there is straw made furniture like the ones we have at home, and the raw materials, long strips of vines and lengths of 'mukru' lying besides them.

"These are the materials from which the furniture and baskets are made. The furniture must have been ordered by some shop owners at the southern side of the fire station. Remember you saw men bringing out furniture earlier? Well, that's the material they are made of" Jaime explained.

He allowed Michael to put the two activities together for a while before continuing.

"Those lengths of vines lying beside the furniture on the cabins are freshly cut 'cooper vines' of various sizes. The fat ones make the legs of chairs and tables while thinner ones are bent for the back. The 'vines' are the root of a tree, a 'mora' or some other tree."

'Cooper vines' and thin 'nibbi vines' are reaped from the forests in the North West and other regions, possibly aback Canal Number one and Canal Number Two. Wherever there is swampy land 'mukru' and 'Ite' and 'truli' palm trees grow. Not all, but in some swamps, 'cooper vines' grow on trees. Makers of cane furniture bend the freshly reaped 'cooper' and 'nibbi' before they harden to make chairs, tables and other household items. 'Mukru' grows in clumps like sugar cane.

Jaime continued," see the fat green canes? They are 'mukru'. Basket makers strip the skin off the 'mukru' and bend them to make baskets of all description-shopping baskets, wide open baskets, ornamental baskets and bassinets.

You know the one your mother fetches her shopping in when she returns home from the market. That basket is made from the 'mukru'.

"When we speak to the captain of the boat, we will see bundles of 'tibisiri' straw in bags lying on the floor of his cabin. The 'tibisiri' straw is made from the shoots of the 'ite palm. Men climb the 'ite' trees and cut the shoots, boil them and when dried, twist them to form a strong binding twine which is woven between the 'cooper' and 'nibbi' to hold the pieces of furniture together. Nails are hardly used.

Michael could not clearly understand all this, but asked where the items were sold.

"When we leave here, we will make a tour of some of the shops that sell what is called local craft. You will see for your-self 'nibbi' furniture and other items made of 'tibisiri' and 'mukru', his father said.

Afterward, they called on the captain and spend a short time, as he was busy. During that time they drank water coconut and on leaving Jaime received some other 'progs'- a few pears, a hand of cayenne bananas, two pineapple and a pumpkin.

Another day, Jaime took Michael to two local craft shops where Michael looked in awe at the display of three piece suite made of 'cooper vine, 'nibbi' and 'tibisiri'.

Bags, hammocks, placement mats and other items made from 'tibisiri' were offered for sale. On entering the local craft shop, it was decorated to give the impression of being a 'benab'. Overhead, they saw a makeshift roof of 'truli' palm leaves held together by pieces of 'tibisiri' straw. Against the walls of the shop were lengths of wattle bent and held together by straw straps to give the appearance of the wall of the 'benab'.

On a few shelves were placement mats, jewel boxes and fruit bowls, all made from the 'tibisiri' straw, as well as small and large cotton hammocks. The cotton is picked from trees, joined by hand into lengths and woven on a frame to ensure the hammocks are sturdy. Hanging from a wall were leather bags for children and adults. There were also paintings of Amerindian children who seemed to be looking inquisitively at customers.

On another wall were small wooden replicas of canoes, arrows and bows, a fisherman aiming his arrow in a bow at an imaginary object, small wooden mortars, and in them pestles to suit their sizes. Turning around, Michael saw balata men and women depicting aspects of Amerindian social life. There were also necklaces made of seeds, some brown and black, others brown and large from trees in the jungle.

At another point in the shop were 'warashis' of different sizes, and long baskets, which Jaime explained were used to squeeze the juice from grated cassava to make 'cassreep', and the residue for the baking of cassava bread. Other items included mosquito brushes, glazed pottery with designs that depict Amerindian folklore. Pairs of carved wooden wall pieces were also displayed among an assortment of fans and hats.

On the floor were larger mortars and pestles, other wooden carvings of men and women and a woman and a child. One shop was so well stocked with local craft that it was difficult to make a choice as at each turn, another piece of craft looked more arresting.

The shops that specialize in selling these hand-crafted pieces attract some local people who buy them as gifts for friends. Overseas visitors are also interested in them and make larger purchases than people at home.

Michael was so confused that at one point during his tour of the shop he stood staring at a two-foot carving of an apron-clad Amerindian man and his wife sitting ina canoe, giving the impression they were paddling up a river. Multicolored cotton towels, lengths of batik-stained cloth and a host of other craft made up the display before Michael's eyes.

The artifacts told interesting stories of how Amerindians live and how they use materials from the forest around them to meet their needs. Preserved skin of alligators and tigers, puma and snakes were also being offered for sale.

Jaime had to touch Michael to bring him out of his reverie and pay attention to what he pointed out. It was a bassinet with small 'tibisiri' straw objects woven into the handle to delight a child placed into its comfortable enclosure. The bassinet was hanging from a hat stand that was the root of some swamp tree turned upside down.

Jaime explained that many tourists make purchases of the pieces of art on display and take them back to the countries they come from. Eventually, he told Michael it was time to leave. Although regretful, he asked his father to buy a pair of carved wall pieces of Amerindian women carrying 'warashis' on their back for his mother. The wall pieces were evidence he had made a tour of the Amer Creation Shoppe in the downtown shopping area.

Michael regaled his mother for days following with descriptions of how the raw material came on boats from the North West Region, of how men threw coconuts, plantains and bananas to one another from the holds of the vessel and the pieces of art he admired at the local craft shops.