Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park helped facilitate a gathering of indigenous Caribbean leaders who met here on St. John and visited significant cultural heritage sites in Virgin Islands National Park including traveling to the Taino petroglyph site in Reef Bay. The group included leaders from the Kalinago Nation of Dominica, and the Guainia Taino of Boriken. Together the chiefs signed a Declaration of Unity at Cinnamon Bay for all to witness and honor. The gathering was small and powerful, in particular, perhaps, to the National Park Service young trail crew (YCC) members who signed the Declaration as official witnesses.
Their visit to St. John included a showing of the PBS documentary, We Are Taino at Bajo El Sol Gallery. The documentary explores the story of Maekiaphan Phillips, a Taino woman from the U.S. Virgin Islands, who is actively working to reclaim her heritage and lead her tribe.
