"Get your head together for independence" - that was one of the slogans for the advertising campaign leading into 1981's big bang for Belize.
Today, it was re-introduced as part memory, part meditation when the Belize City Council unveiled a mural inspired by one of the original posters promoting Belize's Independence. Jomarie Lanza reports:
In 1981 this was the advertising campaign for independence, under the slogan "Get your head together for Independence." Now 42 years later a group of artists, 7 Belize City students led by Gilvano Sawsey and "Lito", have reimagined this poster for the post independence period.
They took these pictures and transformed them into silhouettes which are reminiscent of the iconic 1981 poster designed by Joan Duran.
It took roughly a month to begin the process of formulating the artwork, and then only a day and a half to paint and bring these images to life.
The Minister of culture said it is a poignant time for reflection:
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
"I think every independence anniversary, every celebration of independence provides us collectively as a nation and opportunity to reflect on where we have come from the past and we pay tribute to those who have worked and fought for self government and independence so we pay tribute to them we can never forget those people. Then of course it offers us an opportunity to reflect on where we are today, the present state of our union the present state of our nation and of course whats critically important is what is our vision for the future. So you know its past, present, future thats the spirit of these celebrations as we go into independence day tomorrow."
"Today we had young people here at this ceremony who painted this mural, students from St Catherine's Academy and St Johns College and early today I attended a flag raising ceremony at E.P York, and when you have an opportunity to engage and interact with young people, you are inspired you cannot help but be filled with hope for the future of this country."
The mural decorates the Rogers Stadium fence on Dolphin Street
