Photos

Many years ago I was privileged to spend two years living in an American Indian community in Suriname. This is one of my favorite pictures taken during the celebration of national indigenous day. This was a really big deal in this community. Although this community had been living on this land for about 100 years (before that they were nomadic), they had no land rights and were at the bottom of the social hierarchy of Suriname. A day dedicated to them was a really big deal.

So to celebrate their heritage everyone was wearing the traditional shawls and the drummers were wearing feathered head bands. They also had the traditional drums out. These drums were so well tuned that their beat carried up to a 1 km. away. They kept a rhythm that beat at about the pace of one's heart. It was amazing to hear.

The great part about these traditional drums was that about 20 years before, they had made the discovery of a replacement for the river otter skins that used to be used to cover the traditional drums. They found out that yellow tarpaulin, like that used to make yellow rain jackets, was the perfect material to make drum heads out of. It was more durable than skin and lasted a lot longer. Now they only use the skins of endangered river otters to cover the drums sold to tourists. Buyer beware!