THE EDITOR: "Chief Sec wants laws to protect Tobago's artefacts," stated the headline in the Newsday of June 27, referring to Farley Augustine's maiden Budget Speech in the Tobago House of Assembly. "Legislation must be enacted in Parliament to protect the island's artefacts," he said.
The individuals who gather artefacts to sell as scrap metal or who place coppers, once used to boil cane juice, in their gardens to cultivate flowers or collect rubbish or rain water are "thereby robbing the population of access to their history."
Augustine went on to state that his government "will invest in climate-controlled facilities and appropriate spaces to house artefacts and historical records." Yet, for over 30 years there has been a museum at Fort King George doing just that. The Tobago Museum is consistently cited by departing tourists on those little questionnaires they are asked to fill out as the most visited tourist attraction in Tobago; more popular than Nylon Pool or Main Ridge Forest.
Can Augustine and his Secretary for Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation, Tashia Burris, be unaware of the existence of the Tobago Museum? I must be forgiven for concluding just that because despite Augustine's proclaimed interest in the history of Tobago and its importance to the local population and to tourists, the museum has been closed to the public for all of 2022. It has been closed to the public because the air conditioning does not function. And this is not the first time the museum has closed its doors to visitors for protracted periods.
Thus, Augustine's promise to "invest" in new climate-controlled facilities has me thinking he needs to put the existing, popular museum back in operation so that its treasures are again housed in an appropriate space.
At this writing the artefacts in the Tobago Museum are possibly deteriorating and no one - local or foreign - can benefit from this important institution.
Augustine and Burris need to get up to "the fort" poste haste if they are truly interested in tourism and the history of Tobago.
A BLADE
Mason Hall
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