NOV20

Classroom lesson · Music · 🇩🇲 Dominica

Kalinago Territory

Home of the Caribbean's last indigenous Kalinago community

A traditional Kalinago carbet (communal hut) surrounded by lush forest in Dominica

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

The Kalinago Territory is a special area on the north-east coast of Dominica where the Kalinago people — also called the Caribs — have lived for hundreds of years. The Kalinago were the original people of the Caribbean islands, and Dominica's Kalinago community is the last remaining indigenous group in the Eastern Caribbean.

Tell me more

About 3,000 Kalinago people live in the Territory today, in eight villages along a beautiful stretch of Atlantic coastline. The Kalinago have their own traditions, crafts, language, music, and ways of using the rainforest. Many Kalinago are expert boat-builders — they have been making long canoes called 'karibunus' by hollowing out single trees for generations.

One of the most famous Kalinago crafts is basket-weaving. Kalinago weavers use thin strips of a plant called larouma to create beautiful baskets, bowls, and bags in patterns that have been passed down through families. The patterns and colours have meaning — different designs can show where someone is from or mark a special occasion.

Visitors to the Kalinago Territory can learn about traditional forest medicine, watch craftspeople at work, and try foods that the Kalinago have cooked for centuries. The Territory has its own chief and council, and the Kalinago people are proud to keep their culture strong and alive for future generations.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Why is it important that the Kalinago keep their language, crafts, and traditions alive?
  2. 02The Kalinago have lived in the Caribbean for hundreds of years. What might they have taught other settlers about living in a tropical rainforest?
  3. 03What traditions or skills does your own family or community pass down through generations?
Try this

Classroom activity

Try designing your own basket pattern on graph paper using just two or three colours. Draw the repeating pattern as if you were weaving strips horizontally and vertically. Write a sentence explaining what your pattern means or represents.

More about Dominica

Other things that make Dominica special

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