A seventh-generation descendant of the Jamaican Maroons, which embraces stilt walking as part of its indigenous culture, has turned to Trinidad and Tobago to reignite that cultural heritage.
Simone Kimberly Harris said she is a descendant of Jamaican’s only woman national hero, Nanny of the Maroons (an early-18th-century freedom fighter and leader of the Jamaican Maroons).
Harris spent two weeks in TT prior to African Emancipation Day, immersing herself in the culture as part of her mission to revive this dying art form in her country.
She experienced several firsts – first in the two-mile long Ethiopian Orthodox parade in San Fernando on a pair of 12-inch stilts, in the Emancipation celebration in Port of Spain, her first costume in Jamaica’s national colours, designed and sewn by Victoria Bisnath, as well as her first doubles, which she promised would not be her last.
Before her departure on August 4, Harris sat down with the Newsday at the Henry Street, San Fernando headquarters of the Junior Bisnath School of the Arts, Sports, and Culture, popularly known as Kaisokah School of the Arts.
[caption id="attachment_1100677" align="alignnone" width="768"] Simone Harris spent two weeks in TT immersing herself in the culture of stilt walking as part of her mission to revive this dying art form in Jamaica. - Photo by Yvonne Webb[/caption]
Harris, who is employed with Jamaica’s Tourism Ministry was taught the techniques of stilt walking, construction of stilts, costume designing and its impact at Kaisokah.
Her mission, she said, is to work on a cultural exchange programme between her stilt walking group, Walking Tall Jamaica and Kaisokah.
Stating she has a love affair with TT culture, Harris said while exploring her Maroon ancestral connections to Nanny, she learnt stilt walking was actually part of her bloodline’s culture.
Her father Donald Harris and his brothers practised this art while growing up in Portland, Jamaica, in Moore Town, a maroon community.
While Walking Tall Jamaica engages in tourist spaces, on the ports, on significant cultural days, including its Independence and carnival, there is no comparison to the spectacular vision the walking giants on wooden pegs present in TT, hence her reason for turning to the “foremost authority.”
Her group walks on two feet and three and a half feet stilts.
A retired dancer, Harris wants to see Walking Tall mokos dance on taller stilts like the TT mokos while dressed in impressive, colourful costumes, drawing in the crowds with their dynamism.
Her first encounter with moko jumbies in TT was in 2016.
[caption id="attachment_1100678" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Trini stilt walkers and Simone Harris demonstrate pride in their national colours. - Photo by Yvonne Webb[/caption]
“I was in Port of Spain and recall seeing these almost celestial beings floating down the (Ariapita) Avenue. I remember being introduced to 'Sir' Bisnath (the respectful title with which his charges identify him).
“Fast forward three years later, I received funding
