It's September 1st, which means Belizeans both here and abroad are gearing up to celebrate the country's 42nd birthday. It's going to be a month of activities organized by the National Celebrations Commission, and it kicked off today with countrywide flag raising ceremonies and the Belize at 42 Awards.
The latter awards 7 Belizeans who have produced notable works in the creative and cultural industry, in the fields of visual arts, dance, theatre and film, literary arts, Belizean music, protection of traditional knowledge, and safeguarding cultural heritage.
Today we spoke with the Minister starting September celebrations off with nationalism and recognition of excellence.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Culture
"Fantastic start to the September celebrations, this morning we were out very early, I joined the Minister of the Public Service and the mayor and the Belize City Council team for the flag raising ceremony at the Pallotti roundabout, so we had a fantastic ceremony this morning with the scouts, the steel pan music, so it was great and some students came and joined us as well. And of course to cap off the day, what better way to do so than with the Belize @ 42 awards, something we started 2 years ago to honor the legacy of 7 great Belizeans who have contributed tremendously to our cultural and creative community and so each year since two years ago, since 2021, we have had an open nomination process where Belizeans from across the country have been nominated for these awards and then they are vetted and a selection committee makes final recommendations and so we're very happy again this year that we're able to honor and recognize and acknowledge seven outstanding Belizean creatives in the areas of dance and music and writing and indigenous culture. As I've said in my brief remarks, for too long we have not paid proper respect to the creative community, to our cultural community. We have not acknowledged them, we have not recognized them so this is one of the proudest things that we do every year for the past two years."
Adrian Martinez, Andy Palacio Award For Original Belizean Music
"It is an honor one that I was not looking out for but I guess it came in time when I was in the stage of thinking if I should continue what I am doing, so this in itself is a courage and so it came just in time to really get that thinking off of me now that hey, the work has to continue, cause I was contemplating whether I should continue dealing with music or not, so it's just the right time."
And we asked him how that ties into the main topic at yesterday's Investment Summit, the orange economy, which focuses on the creative sector.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Culture
"This is exactly what the orange economy was all about, so I was very happy at the Belize Investment Summit to participate in a panel discussion about the orange economy. This is what the orange economy is, it's about the creative cultural economy and how can we generate economic value out of this creative cultural work. Again, it's an area that we have not paid sufficient attention to and it's tremendous potential across the globe, the orange economy is accounting increasingly for more and more of nations' GDP so we have to do our part, NICH has to do its part, the Minister of Culture has to do its part to make sure that we are engaging and involving our creative community and putting in place a structure and legislation and policy and programs that allow them to get value out of their work."
