The Tribune

MARION Bethel, the Bahamian attorney, human and gender rights activist, filmmaker and acclaimed writer/poet, has been awarded the prestigious Caricom award for women. She is the first Bahamian to receive the award, which will be presented on July 1 in Antigua and Barbuda.

The award, which was introduced in 1983, is issued every three years to honour a Caribbean woman whose work has made a significant contribution in the arena of women’s development and the socio-economic development of the Caribbean.

Minister of Social Services and Community Development, Melanie Griffin, said Mrs Bethel’s efforts as a strong advocate for gender equality and human rights, was “without a doubt” a significant contributing factor to her selection as was her production of the documentary: “Womanish Ways: Freedom, Human Rights and Democracy – the Women’s Suffrage Movement in The Bahamas, 1948-1962.”

Mrs Griffin’s comments were made during the special recognition session of the House of Assembly on Thursday.

Mrs Bethel was recommended to Cabinet for consideration for the award by officials of the Ministry of Social Services and Community Development. Approval was given and her name was advanced to Caricom for their consideration.

“We are delighted that Marion was selected for this distinguished regional award in the field of gender and development and becomes the first Bahamian to be so honoured,” Mrs Griffin said.

“In the words of the late Dame, Dr Doris L Johnson on behalf of the Women’s Suffrage Movement on January 19, 1959: ‘Today, invincible womanhood, mother of men and ruler of the world raises her noble head.’ Marion, today the women who you loved and admired, the women whose hidden story you revealed again to this country and carried to the world, salute you for these wonderful achievements.”

Interventions on behalf of Mrs Bethel were heard from Hope Strachan, Glenys Hanna-Martin (PLP) and Loretta Butler-Turner (FNM).

Mrs Strachan said Mrs Bethel’s documentary has touched all of those who have viewed it in a very real way. “It is, I think, an opportune time for me to be living in this time when Mrs Bethel’s work has come to the forefront,” she said. “It is a sign of the culmination of the struggle of the women of the Suffrage Movement of whom my grandmother was a part. The documentary brought to light, in a very, very significant way, the experience of the struggle they had to go through in order for all of us to be here today. It has touched all of us in a real way and I am very, very proud of her accomplishment.”

Mrs Hanna-Martin described the documentary as a “very beautiful, powerful piece of work that she has done.”

“I think Marion, and you would see it from her writings and adaptations, see the obligation continuing even today because there are residual cultural issues that persist and prevail in our society that we must move beyond and she continues to advocate for that continuing journey. The Suffrage Movement was the beginning of that journey,” Mrs Hanna-Martin said.

Mrs Butler-Turner said Mrs Bethel “comes from a long heritage of women and men who believe in the rights of Bahamians. Her grandmother, the late Mother Francis Butler, is indeed my great grandmother, the mother of one of the leading persons in our society many years ago, Sir Milo Butler who would be Marion’s uncle.

“And so to say that this journey, this achievement, is something that is novel, I must say that it has been ingrained and instilled in her from before her own birth and so it is a pleasure to see the culmination of the work she has done,” Mrs Butler-Turner added.