It is 13 km, just a 30-minute drive, from Douglas-Charles Airport to the Kalinago territory on the east coast of the island of Dominica. It is estimated that the Kalinago people arrived in the Lesser Antilles from South America about a century before the European colonisers. The Kalinago were reputed to be warlike people; they certainly resisted - and attacked - both the European settlers and also marauding pirates over the centuries. It was the rugged and often inaccessible terrain of Dominica that saved the indigenous Kalinago people from extinction.
In 1903, the Crown Colony administrator secured a 15 sqm reservation for the Kalinago on the east coast of Dominica. There are eight villages within the territory, which represents 2% of the total area of Dominica; the population numbers around 3,000 to 4,000 people. They are the largest remaining Kalinago community in the Caribbean region. Most are engaged in farming, fishing and handicrafts. About 65% of the Kalinago population is between the ages of 18 and 35; there are no longer any surviving speakers of the indigenous languages. Their income is below the (already low) national average for Dominica.
After France formally ceded the island to the British in 1763, plantations were established, with a slave labour force brought across from Africa (slavery was eventually abolished in 1833). The following 130 years saw the indigenous Kalinago people increasingly marginalised in the mountains. It was only in 1970 that a road was cut through to the territory; telephones and electricity were not made available until the 1980s.
It would help the Kalinago community a great deal if you visited the ‘model’ village at Barana Aute and perhaps purchased one or two of the attractive hand-made wicker baskets for which they are renowned, or some of their excellent works of art.
In 2023, Sylvanie Burton, a politician, was elected as the first Kalinago President of Dominica – a proud moment indeed for her people. And, in 2024, Thea LaFond, won Gold at the Paris Olympic Games in her chosen sport –Triple Jump - yet another proud moment for the Kalinago people.
Further down the lesser-visited east coast is the black sand Rosalie Bay, the Rosalie Bay resort and the Sari Sari and Victoria Falls - both definitely worth visiting.
