‘educo-tourism’

It is now a popular exercise worldwide for persons trying to find their ancestors; however, the community of Woodside in St Mary will tell you it does not need ancestry.com.

“For data on their ancestors, there exists a Wall of Honour, providing a jumping off point for further research,” says Dr Erna Brodber, St Mary’s pioneer of ‘educo-tourism’.

The renowned academic, novelist, sociologist and anthropologist credits Carib Cement for making this possible.

Although she has travelled to many parts of the world to teach, give lectures and conduct research, her base remains Woodside, St Mary, the village where she was born and raised. Such has been her love and commitment to her community, that her skills and expertise have been directed at uncovering its history and advocating for its recognition and development. As she has moved forward, she has insisted on taking everyone in the community with her, and through this her village has become known as a centre for educo-tourism, heritage tourism and now, with the establishment of the Woodside Ancestral Garden, spiritual tourism.

Meant to be a sacred space, the Ancestral Gardens pays homage to the convergence of Taino, African and European presence. Dr Brodber hopes that visitors from Jamaica and around the world will come to contemplate their lives and learn from the history of those who once occupied the area.

The dream of the Ancestral Gardens, conceptualised more 15 years ago, became a reality when the Woodside Community Action Group emerged winners of the Caribbean Cement Company Limited’s Build Your Community Competition last year and earned the prize of a community development project valued at $5 million dollars.

Acting on the specifications of the community’s proposal, contractors commissioned by Carib Cement transformed an area which was mostly a roughly cleared space surrounded by bushes and which was accessible only by gingerly descent down a slope. The work crew, including tradesmen and labourers from the community, installed: concrete benches, a symbolic replica of a Taino hut, railings, concrete steps, concrete pathways, protective barriers, signage, and a wall of honour on which names of enslaved persons who worked on the former coffee plantation in the area will be mounted. Carib Cement also renovated restrooms, provided a water tank, paved a section of the road entering the community, and donated a string trimmer (weed-whacker) to help with the ongoing clearing of bush and brush.

This and other improvements to the area make the space easily accessible and welcoming for either hosting events or for quiet individual reflection. It is hoped that the garden will increase the number of visitors to the area, reignite community tourism, provide employment for residents in the capacities of bed and breakfast hosts and tour guides.

In her own words, Dr Brodber expresses her hope: “There is no need for this sacred tourism to be a one-day experience only. There are other significant sites in Woodside with which one can also relate, such as Atabey, a Taino petroglyph discussed in the historical records since 1820. We also have caves, significant enough to attract the Leeds University in the UK and to be pictured in Fincham’s Jamaica Underground. There are people in the village that can make some dollars leading tourists through these caves”.

Situated within central and western St Mary, Woodside is a farming community located close to Highgate and Guys Hill. Four national heritage sites have been declared in the area by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, namely: Dryland or ‘One/Long Bubby Susan’, a cave with a petroglyph; St Gabriel’s Anglican Church; Taino Steps, and ‘Daddy Rock’.

Other intriguing features of the community make it highly attractive to researchers and students.

“Since 1988, we have operated a tourism product in our village which we call ‘educo-tourism’, because it emphasises knowledge, and most of our clients are college and high-school students and their teachers. It is structured so that both locals and foreigners/visitors share knowledge,” said Dr Brodber.

Usually, guests to the area stay in homes in the village learning, among other things, to eat and prepare their foods, while exchanging their culinary forms. “There is always a cultural session in which we teach each other cultural items such as dances and songs, poems, stories and games. The main fare has been, however, visits to our historical sites, three of them now defined a sacred space,” Dr Brodber said.

The Woodside Community Action Group is hoping for further developmental support to market and sustain its unique product, including the annual observation on August 1, when the emancipation is celebrated and the declaration reenacted. Also this year, a landmark activity will take place at Woodside with the staging of a Taino peace-and-dignity run in which Tainos from outside of Jamaica will participate.

The Anglican Church, owners of the property on which the heritage sites are located and who granted permission for the establishment of the Ancestral Gardens, have proven to be visionary, innovating and very supportive of the community’s developmental and advancement efforts.