Premier salutes Hon Walwyn for commissioning Territorial Song & Dress
The Premier was at the time speaking at the Fourth Sitting of the First Session of the Fifth House of Assembly on October 13, 2023, when 10 national heroes and heroines were named via a resolution.
The Premier said, “I recognise the efforts of those who have come before, and I'll recognise Honourable Myron Walwyn in this instance because, of course, he commissioned a territorial song, a territorial dress, and other symbols.”
The name of the Territorial Song is "Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" and, according to the Premier, “the purpose of those things is so we can start to strengthen our national identity, separate and apart from the colonial identity which has been imposed on us. And this is also a part of that effort, a very important aspect of that effort of strengthening our national identity, by identifying and celebrating heroes who have fought against injustice in our society.”
More heroes to be identified – Premier
“And we have these heroes, these sheroes before us today. And I must make it clear, that there are many names that we do not know, and when our historians do the research, and they bring these names to us and we discover the great exploits of our parents, we must add them to the number.”
According to the Premier, historians will play a great role in the VI society in terms of identifying future heroes to be celebrated.
He said information to be unearthed is within our family history and even in the National Archives.
“But we all agree that a great debt of gratitude [is owed] to our historians. They have a very important work in our society,” Dr Wheatley added.
He said there is work to be done to ensure that information can be saved and documents rescued, "some of which are documents which are deteriorating, as we speak.”
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