The Saint Lucia National Trust (SLNT) has expressed ‘extreme concern’ regarding recent reports of damage, destruction, and removal of historical artifacts and built heritage at various historic sites island-wide.
A Trust statement disclosed that the latest incident occurred at River Doree in Choiseul.
The SLNT emphasised that ‘all such assets, whether on private or public properties, are not just historical artifacts and built heritage, but they are part of the unique historic heritage of Saint Lucia.’
As a result, the organization stressed the need to protect and, where possible, conserve those assets.
” With the rise of interest in heritage tourism worldwide and the concurrent development of community tourism in Saint Lucia, it is even more important to protect these assets to enable local communities to benefit socially and economically from their own local tangible heritage,” the SLNT stated.
It urged anyone with information on removing or damaging historic objects and structures to contact the Trust via info@slunaturaltrust or telephone 452-5005.
Alternatively, individuals may contact the River Doree Revival Group at https://www.facebook.com/RDRGroup1.
On its Facebook page, the River Doree Revival Group said it learned about an individual seeking to acquire a particular historical mechanical artifact of a larger cane processing system along the banks of Riviere Doree on Saturday, March 16th, 2024.
As a result, a few members of the Group investigated the matter.
“Unfortunately, we were too late as part of the structure was stolen,” the Facebook post stated.
It disclosed that the stolen mechanical piece formed part of a larger cane processing system that had been there from the 17th century, dating back to the slavery era.
Before the theft, the Group said several people had approached seeking to acquire artifacts along the river bank, to which it ‘vehemently disagreed’.
The Group explained that nothing is worth the artifacts’ history and what the items mean to ‘us as a people’.
Y’all were concerned about everything under Chastenet, Now Crickets!
So long these things where there why you’ll never secured it. A bunch of lazy so & so’s.
National trust are just a bunch of political sycophants. Totally useless in the real world.