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Big Drum Dance of Carriacou Annette C. Macdonald The first time I traveled to Carriacou was in July 1966 to do field research on the Big Drum Dance for my master’s degree thesis (in physical education , with emphasis on dance anthropology) at the University of California , Berkeley. M.G. Smith, a professor from Jamaica, told me that in all the islands of the Caribbean, the Big Drum in Carriacou was the oldest dance complex that still existed. I decided that this was definitely worth investigating . I was accompanied by my friend Mary Joyce, who was interested in the children’s dance she might find on the island. We flew to Grenada, then took a schooner ferry boat across the strait called Kick ’em Jenny, and were met at the dock by Mr. Redhead, the District Officer of Carriacou, to whom I had sent a letter. He told us where to go and whom to visit regarding the Big Drum. He said that he had heard the people had decided not to have the Big Drum that year for the annual regatta, but that we should try to find out. We then met two sisters at the Madonna House, a Catholic apostolate that performed nursing, teaching, and other services on the island. They suggested people to visit to obtain information about the Big Drum, and we also discussed the relation of the Big Drum ancestral cult to Christianity on the island. They were fascinated that I was so interested in the Carriacou culture. We hailed a taxi (almost all the cars were taxis) and went to visit Harveyvale Primary School, where we met two young teachers, Elveta Gabriel and Ethlyn Alexander. They told us they had been dancers performing two Big Drum dances, hallecord and gwa bele, for Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Grenada in the winter of 1966. The children at the school had already been dismissed, but were still playing outside on the playground, so the teachers called them back into the classroom. The teachers beat the rhythms on the 286 Annette C. Macdonald wooden desk and asked the children to perform five of the Big Drum dances they had taught them. The next day Mr. Redhead told us to go to a store and buy a present for Mae Adams, the wife of the master drummer, Sugar Adams, and deliver it to her. He said that if Mae said there were no plans for a Big Drum that I should offer them money to have it. So we bought a nice straw hat, then took a taxi to her house on the hill to meet her. She was pleased to receive the hat and told us there was no Big Drum planned. I gave her thirty-five dollars, and she agreed to plan it for the following evening. At sundown, July 30, 1966, the Big Drum Dance was held in the yard of the master drummer, Sugar Adams. We had a Super 8 movie camera and a tape recorder. One of the Madonna House sisters, Marite Langois, held a lantern up in the darkness, and two children held three large flashlights on the dancers. I spoke into the tape recorder, describing all the dances. It was a wonderful evening. I traveled to Carriacou three more times, in 1977 to reshoot some of the Big Drum dances in daylight, in 1996 to see a Big Drum performance for the annual regatta and connect with my friends Winston Fleary and Lucian Duncan, and in March 2007 to interview Winston Fleary. This chapter reflects two knowledgeable Carriacouans speaking and writing about the Big Drum today. It centers around information gathered from the interview with folklorist/Big Drum director Winston Fleary and from the book by school principal, folklorist, and author Christine David, Folk Traditions of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, published in 2004. Also very helpful was consultation given by Dr. Donald Hill, professor of anthropology at State University of New York, Oneonta, and the work of ethnomusicologists Lorna McDaniel, Alan Lomax, and Andrew Pearse. Carriacou, seven and a half miles wide and two and a half miles long, is the largest of the Grenadine Islands and lies twenty-six miles north of Grenada. It does not have mountains or rivers, just lovely hills, valleys, and plains. Carriacou was originally inhabited by Native Americans who came from South America. It was alternately colonized by the French and British between 1650 and 1783 when Britain gained full control. In 1967 Grenada, Carriacou...

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