Barbados Unveils New Monument at National Heroes Square
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Barbados on Tuesday night unveiled a monument to the local family at the National Heroes Square, with Prime Minister Mia Mottley calling on the extended family to continue the Barbadian tradition of looking out for and assisting in the rearing of children.
Monument to Barbadian Family (GIS)Mottley told the ceremony that was attended by several local dignitaries, including President Dame Sandra Mason; parliamentarians and the general public that family support was vital, expressing the view that over time the family institution had not received the needed healing.
“I ask us today to continue that tradition because it is only through solidarity, community and family that we can rise to be the best that we can…. As a small nation, we need everyone moving in the same direction if we are going to make difficult things seem achievable, easy and possible….
“More often than not, it is the extended family that makes the difference as to whether the journey of that particular child can be smooth or whether it becomes disruptive,” Mottley said, adding that any suggestion that the government would do anything to denigrate the family in Barbados “is so offensive.
“The notion that we are here to impose on our children capacity and obligation, … to determine their identity and their gender is as preposterous as giving them the right to determine that they can consent to sex as minors, and therefore it must be put to rest where it belongs – in the garbage heaps of this country….
“When our Father of Independence (the late Errol Barrow) said that we were friends of all and satellites of none, he wasn’t only talking about relationships with countries, he was talking about the arrogance of the people of this nation or the confidence, depending through whose prism you are looking at it, to determine that we can chart our own ways and we can be firm craftsmen of our fate.
“We do not take tutelage from anyone as to who is and is not the family. We do not take tutelage from anyone as to what matters in terms of our mission. If that which we have settled, we agree with others, then that is solidarity. But the notion that others shall determine our future by reason simply of relationships outside of the bounds of this geography is preposterous equally, and must equally be put one side,” Mottley added.
The government says that the Monument to the Barbadian Family titled “We Loyal Sons and Daughters All”, follows their journey and recognises them as the heroic beacons of the nation, from which all national heroes came.
The design of the monument focuses on the history of slavery and oppression; the endurance and resilience of the Barbadian family; and the family’s role in producing national heroes.
It was designed by Barbadians Vincent Jones and Hugh Holder.
