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Contact:
Claudia Monlouis
Thursday, May 05, 2005 - While St. Lucia’s Creole folk music may this
year be enjoying a record amount of exposure at St. Lucia Jazz, calls have made
for folk artistes and government bodies to act quickly to guard the indigenous
music from over exploitation.
Officer in Charge of the Folk Research Centre (FRC) Mr. Robert Lee says seeing
the music grow and gain momentum with an international audience is of cultural
significance for the island. Mr. Lee advised artistes to do their homework early
and join the move to copy write their creations.
Mr. Lee disclosed that St. Lucia’s Queen of Song Dame Selipha Sessenne Descartes
was recently signed up as a member of the Hewannorra Musical Society (HMS) and,
and he further suggested that is the direction in which the folk artistes must
go.
“Even though that song of Sessenne may be used in a Jazz styling, or you take a
Jab Duplesis song and you do a jazz styling, that’s the man’s song. And no
matter what form you develop it into you owe him royalties. So St. Lucians have
protection under the Copy Write Act and also with HMS.”
Meanwhile General Manager of the Hewannora Musical Society Mr. Steve Etienne
says St. Lucia’s indigenous music may be protected through branding.
“St. Lucia Jazz is a great opportunity for us to showcase our uniqueness to the
rest of the world. However we can play a greater role in protecting our
indigenous music. I believe government and certainly the Intellectual Property
Office will be able to advise in that direction. We can follow the example that
has been demonstrated in other countries where they plan or they set out to
protect what is theirs. For example the Champagne region of France only wine
produced from that particular area can be classed as champagne. This is part of
the protecting something which is indigenous to yourself.”
Mr. Etienne says there are lessons to be learnt from the region’s recent
history. “We’ve seen how Trinidad lost the right of patent for the steel pan,
which I understand is now owned by an American company. It’s very sad indeed to
actually use something that you regard as yours but if you do not seek
protection for it and take the steps to make it your legally then it can
certainly go.”
Local composers Ronald “Boo” Hinkson and Monty Maxwell performed several folk
songs which were infused with modern genres at St. Lucia Jazz 2005. The effort
to expand Creole folk music was started some years ago by notable St. Lucian
musicians and included the works Luther Francois, Francis Regis, Augustin “Jab”
Duplessis and Amate.
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