The Tribune

By RIEL MAJOR

OFFICIALS of the Clifton Heritage Authority have announced the next stage of development for the Clifton Heritage Park will commence next month.

Shonel Ferguson, Fox Hill MP, said the team has wonderful plans on the way for the park.

She said: “This park speaks to who we are in a large way. In terms of the Lucayan village, we hope to break ground next month. Our team is fairly extensive, we get expertise from wherever expertise exist.

“It is the one place in the whole country where you have had three civilisations living in this one space...you had the Lucayans, the Europeans and the Africans.

“We have plans to get the wetlands back...we have plans to get birds back and we have plans to have experiential tours. Some have already started so when you come here, and you go to the slave village you will see gardens with the type of things the slaves grew. They were able to grow things for their own sustenance.”

At a press conference on Monday, Ms Ferguson said park officials are about to rebuild the Lucayan village so people can see first-hand how the Lucayans lived and in hopes of attracting more visits from both tourist and locals.

“People will be able to see what kind of huts they lived in, what kind of implements they used to survive, just how they live, and they’ll be able to participate in building a canoe and making something.

“We are actually having some plants propagated, for instance the Lucayans coloured themselves. Same thing with the Europeans if you were wealthy you wanted things that were blue so indigo grew here, tobacco grew here, cotton grew here so we are bringing all of those things back.

“It is going to be exciting...the Bahamas we hope will flock here, tourists will flock here because it would say in a very interesting and exciting way where Bahamians started their journey on this part of the island.”

Dr Colin Brooker, architect, said his task has been to identify the building owners and how the ownership pattern changed overtime.

“My task has really been to identify how the plantation itself changed over time. My task now and in the future is to try keep them standing.”

Ms Ferguson said money is needed and officials are looking at partnerships that can bring money to the park.

She added: “People come to a national park for a number of things, they come to see history. Clifton has some natural attributes that makes it very interesting. It has a huge coastline.

“Clifton will be a compilation of all kinds of things…history, activities so all of the national holidays that impact history and Clifton there will be events around that. We look to have something here at Clifton to have night time activities.”