History of the Catholic Church in the South Rupununi (1)

The South Rupununi village of Sawariwau will celebrate its centenary on December 1st, 2019. Medino Abraham had done a three-part series on the history of the church in the South Rupununi.

The Church of England was first established in Pirara in 1838, but was destroyed by Brazilian border troops, because Brazil being a Catholic nation was not happy with the Protestant Church of England establishing its headquarters at the other side of the unsettled border in British Guiana. 

After a long time, in 1907 the Anglican Mission recommenced in Yupukari North of the Rupununi. According to oral narratives, “it was the Anglican missionaries that invited the Catholics/Jesuit missionaries to go to Central Rupununi to establish a mission there in 1909 on the border with Brazil; because earlier the people living in Central area used to go to North Rupununi to attend church there”.

Brazil being a Catholic nation, felt it was for the British authorities in British Guiana to establish Catholicism in the South and be on par with their counterparts in Brazil to avoid previous negative experiences between Catholic versus Protestant like what occurred earlier at Pirara.

Hence, from there onwards the Catholic church in British Guiana through the British Jesuits established their headquarters for the Rupununi Mission at Ariwa - modern day St. Ignatius.

Prior to settling the border issue between British Guiana and Brazil in 1904, the Brazilians were in back and forth discussions with the British authorities to have the two nations border fixed. The British wanted their territory to commence from Rio Branco in Roraima, and the Brazilians wanted theirs to be from the Rupununi River in British Guiana. In the midst of this controversy the King of Italy intervened and settled the border between the two national states in 1904, establishing the international border at the Takutu and Ireng Rivers that divides Guyana and Brazil.

Five years later in 1909 the British Jesuits established their mission head-quarter at the right bank of the Takutu River. From this base the pioneer priest Father Cary-Elwes began the work of visiting the many scattered communities and introducing the gospel to the Macushi, Wapichan and Patamona people.

          Fr. Carey Elwes with indigenous children in the Rupununi (Photo: Arrupe house archive).

John Bridges, the Jesuit historian who documented the activities of Fr. Cary Elwes from his diaries, highlighted that his early missionary activities to the Indigenous people consisted of contacting small groups to catechize them. The pioneer missionary also used appropriate methods to capture the peoples´ sensitivity such as songs and music to convey their biblical messages. Subsequently, he invited the people to be baptized and encouraged them to build chapels in their villages (Bridges, 1985).

Bridges, in his further analysis of Cary Elwes’ activities, related that the priest had a special dedication to his work, where he visited the people who did not attend Church. There he understood many of their ancestral religious traditions. The missionary also left information for the leaders he perceived had influence over the others.

These activities of Father Cary Elwes for 13 years had an impact on the life of Indigenous Communities in the Rupununi Mission, seeing the missionary as a "prophet,” and accepting that the Christian names he chose for their children at baptism were an identity from heaven.

When his health was weakened because of the laborious life he lived in the hot climate of the region without much care of himself, the indigenist Missionary from the frontier of Guyana with Brazil was taken by his fellow Jesuits to Georgetown in May 1923. To his deep regret, he was never able to return and Fr Henry Mather replaced him at St. Ignatius.

From such courageous and ground-breaking efforts by the early British Jesuits in making contact with the Indigenous People through evangelization in the interior of Guyana, the Rupununi and Pakaraimas missions were founded and considered the church’s great success of Christianity to the indigenous people for the twentieth century.

Thus, over the years as Catholicism developed in the mission many communities were founded in places where some Indigenous people were already living.

The people traditionally did not build their villages in places that flooded because they needed healthy places to live and establish their farms and these insightful observations by the missionaries helped with the effectiveness of the mission.

They chose solid places for the establishment of villages, some close to forest and some close to the border at the Takutu River.

This process of establishing villages ultimately served the purpose of assimilating the Macushis, Wapichans and Patamonas into the wider national society of then British Guiana. Through baptism the church initiated official documentation of the indigenous population to central Government as its citizens.

              History of the Catholic Church in the South Rupununi (II)

Although the early missionary activities to the indigenous people was to convert them to Christianity, which transformed some elements of their traditional cultures, the Jesuits also possessed a broad vision of Mission in their establishment where care was showed for the welfare of the people, like a father who cares about all aspects of his family. They offered significant social services to the people of the Rupununi.

Church documents recorded that from the 1940s, the Catholic Church through the Jesuits assisted the colonial Government in establishing and administering a network of Primary Schools. Jesuit educator, Father Bernard McKenna, played an important role in the establishment of primary schools in the interior. To assist him in the education service, he recruited a large number of Arawak teachers from the community of Santa Rosa, Moruca for these institutions.

Father McKenna operated from the Wapichan community of Sand Creek, where he was the priest responsible for the missionary work among the Wapichans in the South of the Rupununi, while Father John Quigley worked with the Macushis in central Rupununi and Father Wilson-Brown with the Patamonas in the Pakaraimas. During this time, health care also had special attention from the Jesuits, were it was rendered by the Jesuit medical doctor Father ‘Doc’ Loretz, from the hospital built under his direction in Aishalton.

The network of primary schools was handed over to the independent government in 1970, when the state closed the church-run schools and took responsibility for providing education services throughout the country. Faced with this new situation in the Mission, the Jesuits opted for a new approach in their evangelization process to the indigenous people and being in the post-independence era, the next apostolic work was focused on training local church leaders (lay vocations) to be catechists and Parish Lay Assistants (PLA s) who assisted priests in their activities and ecclesial ministries in the Rupununi.

In concluding, in the communities the result of the above new initiative was remarkable where the lives of the people are not priest centered, but are rooted in a rich and diversified way in all villages. The day-to-day activities of the Church are commonly performed by "Parish Lay Assistants" (PLAs). Moreover, it is also notable that the leaders of the local Church have various advantages over priests in ministerial collaboration, for they live with the people, share their social and cultural life, know their customs and traditions in depth, thus better understand their problems and struggles. 

A church procession in the Rupununi 

                       Sawariwau to celebrate centenary on December 1^st

Given its history with the entry of Catholic Church in 1919, Sawariwau at present is said to be the oldest Wapichan Village in the South Rupununi this year 2019. From there Catholicism apparently spread to other Wapichan communities. The village is located 14 miles South West of Dadanawa ranch, 70 miles South of Lethem and 21 miles east of the Brazilian border at the Takutu River. The village is comprised of 548 families, all of whom declared themselves Catholics and who speak their local language Wapichan; English, the national language; and some Portuguese.

When I asked a villager why Sawariwau has remained a Catholic Wapichan community for all these years, his response was “our ancestors were baptised and became Catholics and that belief and tradition they left us to continue. That is why we are maintaining it. The elder leaders like former toshaos along with villagers over the years have also made agreement only to have one church in the village as a form to respect the ancestors’ legacy. That is why Sawariwau is still Catholic up to today and will continue to be onwards”.

        Newly built church benab at Sawariwau ( Photo: Imaculata Casimero).

Given that the Catholic Church is the only one in the village for one hundred years, it is good to know that the church did not kill the language and customs of the people for all this time. The people speak their local language very strongly along with English and are proud indigenous Catholics. This is a great blessing for the church and the Wapichans.

To celebrate these and other blessings, the villagers will have a series of activities - a significant one being the inauguration of the new church benab for the grand celebration on December 1st, 2019. Other activities for the celebration include a procession - walking and praying the rosary and singing - from Pirazanaawa the place where the first building was located, which is five miles to the village centre. This activity will be held on the afternoon of Saturday November 30th, after which there will be a cultural presentation   reflecting on the missionary works of Fr. Carey Elwes  done by the villagers.

On Sunday December 1st, at nine o´clock in the morning, there will be the blessing and opening of the new church followed by Holy Mass which will be celebrated by his Lordship Bishop Francis Alleyne OSB and the priests of the area. During the Mass there will also be confirmation of about 30 young people. 

                  History of Sawariwau Catholic Church ( 111)

Ethnohistory from some elders of the community and documents of the church (Bridges 1985; Pierre 1994) related that the first church building was established at Pirazanaawa, which means Agoti grandfather hill in Pawishian language.[1] It is located approximately four miles northwest from the central area of Sawariwau. In 1919 after the visit of Fr Karey Elwes SJ to evangelise the first inhabitants of the area. A leader Johnson by name was instrumental in erecting the building with the people. The church subsequently was given the name St. John Berchmans.  

Apparently from 1919 to 1928 there was a severe shortage of water at the nearby creek at Pirazanaawa. This situation made the inhabitants moved to another location called Shawari-wao named given after the palm trees that were found in abundance at the nearby creek. Thus, Shawari-a reef of palm trees and wao- creek or water. Later it was given the new name Sawariwau.  Most people in the village know of this popular version of history of the community.[2]

The second church building constructed in 1928 at Sawariwau was called “The Big Church”. Baptism records from the Catholic church of the area gave names of the people baptised from 1925 onwards at St. John Berchmans by Dom Odilon Munding Order of Saint Benedict (O.S.B) vice general of the Prelazia Rio Branco, Brazil ( Baptism register 1925-1936. St. Robert Bellarmine RC. Church, Aishalton).

Sawariwau is located 14 miles south west of Dadanawa ranch, 70 miles south of Lethem and 21miles east of the Brazilian border at the Takutu river. The village is comprised of 548 families all of whom declared themselves "Catholics". They speak their local language Wapichan, English and some Portugues.

1st church building at Pirazanaawa 1919.

2nd building at present place in Sawariwau 1928.[3]

3rd building at present place in 1957.

4th building at present place1995.

5th building at present place 2019.

Reference

Bridges, John SJ. Rupununi Mission. The Story of Cuthberth Cary-Elwes SJ among the Indians of Guiana 1909-1923. Jesuit Missions, London. 1985.

Baptism register. 1925-1936. St. Robert Bellarmine RC. Church, Aishalton.

Pierre, L. Stephen Campbell. The evolution of an Amerindian Political advocate in a Colonial State. History Gazette. Turkeyen, 1994.

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[1] The Wapichan researchers Angelbert Johnny et al, related that the early inhabitants at Pirazanaawa were a subgroup of Wapichans called the Pawishians.

[2] In recent times local Wapichan researchers in the community gave another version of how the village got its name. According to them the original name is “Shawarowáoro in Pawishian language. It means fish grandfather which is in the form of a huge rock found at the source of the river that passes through the village. Subsequently Shawarowáoro changed its spelling to Sawariwau.

[3] Baptism records showed that people began to be baptised by the Jesuit, Mayo SJ in 1926 and later in 1928 by William Keary SJ) at St. John Berchmans.