Manmay LaKay Magazine Issue 2 April 2018 | Page 48

I realized that not only were my children
affected by the lack of indigenous literature,
but all children born in the diaspora were
similarly affected. So, 20 years ago I made it a
goal to write children’s stories that
highlighted typical experiences of children in
St. Lucia and the Caribbean.
Ahh, the saying "it doesn't matter how slowly
you go as long as you do not stop," springs to
mind...
My third reason for writing these books is as
an educator, I realized the importance of
reading and literacy in human development,
but discovered that many children from
minority cultures had limited culturally
relevant literature to pique their interest in
reading and motivate them to want to read.
Most of the reading material 
available to them were about people that did
not look like them and were not of their
culture. That sent the message that
their culture was not significant or
important enough to write about.  And if your
culture and your origins are not important to
write about, perhaps you are not important 
as a product of your culture, and
therefore you abandon your cultural
heritage and try to become someone
else. 
It struck me that there was a strong
connection between culturally relevant
literature and cultural identity. I
therefore decided that writing
culturally relevant literature was a very
important way of nurturing our
cultural self.
Very fair point.
Culturally relevant literature nurtures
ourselves and others by reflecting,
highlighting, validating and celebrating
interesting, beautiful, valuable,
inspiring aspects of our daily lives and
experiences. Writing and sharing
indigenous literature is just a small
contribution to help our people
nurture themselves culturally. 
Oh my – so very powerful and true. I
tip my hat off to you for recognizing