Maroon Chief Wants to Strengthen Heritage and Culture

Chief of the Moore Town Maroons in Portland, Colonel Wallace Sterling, is hoping his national award will help to further strengthen the heritage and culture of the maroons.

Colonel Sterling was awarded the Order of Distinction in the Rank of Officer (OD), for the promotion and protection of maroon heritage in Jamaica.

He was among some 221 outstanding Jamaicans who were recognised at the National Honours and Awards Ceremony, held on the lawns of King’s House in Kingston, on October 17.

Colonel Sterling said he was surprised when he learnt of the award, since he was just doing his work and “not expecting any reward”.

“It makes you become cognisant of the fact that what you are doing, others are taking note and that you are doing it in a way that would basically help to improve the community and to further strengthen the heritage and the culture of our people,” he told JIS News during an interview.

Expressing his gratitude for the award, Mr. Sterling said it was not possible without the help from members of the Moore Town Maroon Council and the maroon community.

The Colonel is just one person, who is the head, and you work closely with others to do the things we have done,” he added.

Colonel Sterling, who is the longest serving Maroon Chief in Jamaica, having been selected as Leader of Moore Town in September 1995, said he is working with the people to improve the community.

Over the last three decades, he has overseen the development of the community through collaboration with the Government of Jamaica and multilateral donor agencies, such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

In 2003, the Kromanti music of the Moore Town Maroons was proclaimed a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Later in 2008, UNESCO inscribed the Maroon Heritage of Moore Town to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and contributed to safeguarding maroon traditions practised in Moore Town.

In 2015, Colonel Sterling was part of the national team that prepared a dossier to UNESCO that resulted in the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park being declared a World Heritage Site.

Inscribed on July 3, 2015, the 26,000-hectare Park is one of the 32 ‘mixed’ World Heritage Sites and the first such in the Caribbean.

One of the goals of the maroon leader is to improve the trail to Nanny Falls, which can be reached by hiking for 45 minutes from Moore Town.

“It is a beautiful waterfall that we have, and we want the approach to be much safer, because we do get a few visitors coming to go there from time to time,” Colonel Sterling said.

Another project in the pipeline is the recreation of a Maroon village involving about 10 or 12 huts, where people can stay or overnight to experience the expressions, practices and other traditions of the Maroons.

Additionally, Colonel Sterling said that plans are afoot to establish a small children’s park in the Maroon community as well as a herbal garden to grow medicinal plants used by the foreparents of Maroons.

“Those are the things that we want to do, because at the end of the day what we want to do is to ensure that we leave a legacy for the generations to come,” he said.

“We want to preserve the language, dances, songs and music of our foreparents for future generations,” Colonel Sterling added.