{"id":270,"date":"2009-11-05T14:36:53","date_gmt":"2009-11-05T19:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/?p=270"},"modified":"2009-11-05T14:36:53","modified_gmt":"2009-11-05T19:36:53","slug":"mr-martin-cheong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/?p=270","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Martin Cheong"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>I was born on 11th<\/sup> September 1966 at Aratack Mission on Kamuni Creek, Demerara River, one mile from Santa Mission and the only Amerindian community in Region 3.\u00a0 I was the tenth in a huge family of 13 children:\u00a0 eight girls and five boys.\u00a0 Aratack is a very small community, originally Amerindian, but it became mixed.\u00a0 In fact, my paternal grandfather was pure Chinese, from a small settlement at the head of the Kamuni Creek, and my mother\u2019s family is mixed as well.\u00a0 The main economic activity is subsistence farming, while generally males go out of community to work in forestry or mining, and return periodically.\u00a0 As a child I thought woodcutting work was too hard \u2013 I hated the idea.\u00a0 As I saw it, the only alternative was teaching, so I told myself I would be a teacher.\u00a0 In 1978 I wrote the Common Entrance and secured a place at the McKenzie High School.\u00a0 While my father was arranging for me to go there, we got a letter saying I had been awarded a government scholarship, with all living expenses, to North Georgetown Secondary School.\u00a0 I boarded at Station St, Kitty, with two other boys.<\/span><\/p>\n

That first week \u2013 doing nothing before school started \u2013 was traumatic.\u00a0 We found ourselves now the guests of strangers who were not genuinely caring, who called us names, who looked at us and saw $75 a month.\u00a0 It was a radical change that shook my thinking and my whole mental state.\u00a0 I had visited the city before, but coming to live in Georgetown was a shock.\u00a0 I was torn away from my community, society, family,\u00a0 even customs and play.<\/span><\/p>\n

I did CXC\/GCE in 1983 then went back home.\u00a0 There was no teaching vacancy, so I helped my father out on his nut farm, and got involved in the Pentecostal Church.\u00a0 After two years I came back to Georgetown and studied theology.\u00a0\u00a0 From 1985 I worked at Guyana Telecommunications Corporation for five years, then at the Inland Revenue Dept for five years, then at the National Frequency Management Unit for another five years.\u00a0\u00a0 In 1995 I did a course at the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education, then a Diploma in Marketing at UG during 1996-1998.<\/span><\/p>\n

I became interested in the Amerindian People\u2019s Association (APA) after I saw a television interview with its President, David James.\u00a0 The objectives and goals impressed me because this NGO was trying to represent the social and economic rights of indigenous peoples.\u00a0 I met David shortly afterward, and indicated my interest to him.\u00a0 I accepted the organisation\u2019s invitation to be a\u00a0 Trustee \u2013 a voluntary post \u2013 in 1997.\u00a0 In 2000 the APA formed the Centre for Amerindian Rights and Environmental Law, which was incorporated as a department of the APA in 2001 and renamed the Amerindian Legal Services Centre.\u00a0 I was appointed its Head, with the general responsibility of addressing all the legal issues that affect Amerindians in Guyana:\u00a0 the rights of Amerindian communities, which tended to be land issues, among other things.\u00a0 We also conducted capacity-building activities such as planning and facilitating workshops in various Amerindian communities,\u00a0 training in basic administration, and discussing rights under the various laws that deal with Amerindians, and the forestry and mining sectors; and more recently the Amerindian Protection Act.\u00a0 Through the APA, I trained in conflict resolution, negotiation and human rights.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because of the APA\u2019s association with other international organisations, I have been to conferences in different parts of South and Central America and the Caribbean.\u00a0 On behalf of South and Latin America, I made a presentation on Land and Conflict at the ECOSOC forum in 2005, and also made a presentation on the Amerindian situation in Guyana to the Commonwealth, in Geneva.\u00a0 In 2006, myself and David James went on a Caribbean lecture tour sponsored by Oxfam, to sensitise indigenous peoples in the region to our experiences in Guyana regarding the then recently passed Amerindian Act.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was part of the group of representatives of the APA,\u00a0 The Amerindian Action Movement of Guyana (TAAMOG) and the Guyana Organisation of Indigenous Peoples (GOIP) which, after consultation with communities, worked on the draft new Amerindian Act; and I also made presentations to the Parliamentary Select Committee individually and on behalf of the APA.\u00a0 I was also involved in the establishment of the Shell Beach Protected Area, worked with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the establishment of protected areas in Guyana, and I\u2019ve also worked with the Forestry Commission on issues related to Amerindian lands and lifestyle.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was born on 11th September 1966 at Aratack Mission on Kamuni Creek, Demerara River, one mile from Santa Mission and the only Amerindian community in Region 3.\u00a0 I was the tenth in a huge family of 13 children:\u00a0 eight girls and five boys.\u00a0 Aratack is a very small community, originally Amerindian, but it became […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-photo-by-dwayne-hackett"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/image001-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4F7T1-4m","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}