News Headline | Students learn Cayman traditional arts

From Cayman Net News:

Students learn Cayman traditional arts

Students from Cayman Prep and High School jump into

the sea after taking a ride in a traditional Cayman

Catboat, with help from the Cayman Catboat Club

Cayman Prep and High School Students show off a

?Womper?, a traditional Caymanian shoe, in this case

made from a section of truck tire

Students enjoy weaving silver thatch, with Rose May

Ebanks, an instructor with Cayman Traditional Arts

Friday, February 24, 2006

Youngsters from Cayman Prep and High School learnt how to make wompers, (old fashioned shoes made from pieces of car tire), as well as traditional Cayman toys and games, including wooden spinning tops, or ?gigs,? kites, and model catboats, on Monday 20 February at a display on Seven Mile Beach, organized by Cayman Traditional Arts.

Cayman Prep teacher, Paul Horridge, explained what the young students were up to.

?The rest of the school has gone on a trip overseas so those that were left have been going on excursions to sites where they will learn more about local history and culture.?

One of the teachers at Cayman Prep and High School, Anita Wheaton, said: ?Today we have visited John Gray Memorial, the old house in Boggy Sands Road. We went to Barkers to see the mangroves with the National Trust; took the students to Hell to see the rock formations, and then went to Turtle Farm before we came here to learn all about traditional crafts and skills.?

But the highlight of the visit with Cayman Traditional Arts was going for a ride on a real catboat, (a traditional Cayman boat, pointed at both ends) with help from Kem Jackson from the Cayman Catboat Club.

Cayman Traditional Arts is a company promoting traditional arts and crafts of the Cayman Islands.

It employs local people with traditional skills such as carving and silver thatch making, and promotes these crafts both by selling craft products and also by demonstrating, especially to children and young people, how the crafts worked and operated in the old days.

Rose May Ebanks, who works with Cayman Traditional Arts, was busy showing the students treasures of Cayman culture.

Some of the students were busy learning how to weave silver thatch, and were plaiting it into stylish-looking bracelets.

Other students were busy learning how to fly a homemade kite.

One of the students, Danya Martiuk, said, ? we learnt about how to weave silver thatch.?

Another student, James Gillies had just finished an exciting ride in a catboat. ?It was a lot faster than you would think,? he said.

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