Last Thursday, we showed you a few highlights from the most recent episode of Uncut. Host Jules Vasquez engaged in an extended conversation with the preeminent Dr. Jaime Awe, a veteran archaeologist and a former Director of Archaeology at NICH.
We showed you what he had to say about how widespread the destruction of Maya cultural heritage sites has been in different parts of the country. That was only one of the challenging discussions that Jules and Dr. Awe engaged in.
Probably the most controversial view from Last Wednesday's episode is Dr. Awe's assertion that according to historical and archival records, the present-day Maya communities of the Toledo District are not direct descendants of the Ancient Maya civilization that occupied Central America, including Belize.
He says that they are the descendants of refugee Maya peoples who returned back to Belize after many years of oppression by European colonizers. If his research is accurate, then the Maya of Southern Belize cannot claim the uninterrupted occupation of Toledo, which pre-dated colonial laws that have progressed to become Belize's present laws, such as the land system at the Ministry of Natural Resources.
We note that Dr. Awe's informed perspective was documented in an affidavit that the Government of Belize submitted as expert witness testimony in the original Maya Land Rights case in the Supreme Court. That was back before it became the CCJ Consent Order of 2015. So, the presiding judge at the time reviewed Dr. Awe's research and still ruled in favor of the Maya. With that context, we pick up that part of the conversation between Jules and Dr. Awe on the historical records of the Maya occupation of Belize:
We turn now to Dr. Awe's explanation of the research on the Toledo District itself. Here are those comments:
Before we broadcasted these comments for tonight's newscast, we sent a copy to one of the major spokespersons of the Maya community. He tells us that he will be able to make a response in the near future.
