Trinidad and Tobago has officially modified its Coat of Arms to include the steelpan where the three ships of Christopher Columbus used to be.
Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley made the announcement, a national one, at his party’s convention: a political event.
He said then, “You see them three Columbus boats in the emblem, they will go. And since we have enough votes in the Parliament to do it. I can announce now that as soon as the legislative adjustment is made, that amendment should be made before the 24th of September. We are going to replace Columbus’s three ships: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria with the steelpan. And for logistical purposes, that will take place over a six-month period, allowing us to consume the stationary and other things we have in place and be replaced by our new intention.”
The news was largely received as favourable, and local artist Gillian Bishop was given the responsibility to redesign the Coat of Arts. Bishop is a jeweler and a competent artist, but her rendering was met with criticism from many quarters. She, however, seemed unbothered by it and is famously quoted by a local newspaper as saying she didn’t care that many disliked her design.
A pause here to say that I am a longtime fan of Bishop’s work. Signature Collection has been on my radar since Secondary School, and I have bought many a silver ring from her. I remember an Amathyst ring in particular that I have to commit to searching for, if nothing else because it has sentimental value.
I am attracted to her willingness to play with shapes. Her rings are sometimes horseshoe shaped or contain swirls in the main design. I presume her style to be art deco, and sometimes it can seem either dated or singularly unique. Bishop has done awards or decorative pieces that twin wood with metal. I can only hope some used the controversy to actually engage with her work.
But the actual Coat of Arms design, I am not a fan. It seemed to me to be for something else. There is little harmony with the Carlyle Chang original, and that is its most obvious flaw. It is clearly an addition, and at some point in the near future it will have to be redesigned.
Of course, the discussion made some revisit early conversations about the need to address the vestiges of Colonialism still rampant in this independent nation. Our place names, customs and general unwillingness to be proud of who and what we are have yet to be dealt with comprehensively.
The Prime Minister’s approach with the Coat of Arms was rushed. He has an election to think of. But it made the process sloppy. The original design of 1962 was well thought out and the committee that supervised the design included the late mas man George Bailey. They carefully considered what would make it into the final product and how each element would work with each other. That is not the case the modified version.
Bouyed by the discussion, the nephews of the late Matthew Whiley, son of the late Bat Man pioneer Edgar Whiley shared his personal redesigned Coat of Arms that he drew in the late 70s. His version is so resolutely Caribbean in its Trinidadianess that it seems radical. There are chac chacs at the top of the design that are red, green and yellow in colour. He too has a steelpan at the base of a circle he used to replace the shield.
Andre Pelletier, Whiley’s nephew shared his late uncle’s design on Facebook with the expressed hope of getting it mainstream attention. He also shared a Sunday Mirror article from 1992 where Whiley is interviewed about his design and his desire to get traction for his vision. I was struck by his desire to get it printed on tshirts because it is something I thought of as soon as I saw it. I may even mention it to his nephews, because I would want one.
But going back to Whiley, and his concept. He was insistent that the steelpan be featured.
“You will remove the domination of the symbols of colonialism which have no meaning to us, and give pan the international recognition it deserves,” Whiley said.
He also felt the flag needed to have the new coat of arms incorporated into it. While I am personally not a fan of that idea, it was born out of his concern that we weren’t protective of our greatest cultural work: the steelpan. It is an issue worth discussing, but Whiley might have been happy to know that it was finally made into our official national instrument last year.
And as I’d recently discovered. We have a lot of national shields and Coat of Arms, throughout our offices of state. Just last week we discovered the Coast Guard has one. Therefore, there is must work to be done to correct those visuals as we seek to confirm our independence as a right-thinking twin-island nation.
And I wanted to end this essay with a comment from Whiley on the whys these things matter, with a reminder that he was saying these things in 1992.
“As a Third World country we must discontinue the use of the colonial symbols used in the National Emblem.”
He’s right, we must.
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