President Christine Kangaloo says invitations extended to schools from the Office of the President are not mere formalities, but rare opportunities of national significance that can help shape young citizens’ understanding of history, identity and civic responsibility.
Her comments came after she revealed that some schools declined invitations to attend a special performance at President’s House.
The performance, Freedom Morning Come, imagines conversations between enslaved Africans on the eve of the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1834.
For more than a decade, the production has been staged on August 1st, Emancipation Day, in front of the Treasury Building in Port of Spain, the original site where the Proclamation was read under the auspices of the Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago.
This year, however, with Emancipation Day just a month away, the production was also brought to President’s House, giving students the opportunity to experience the performance in a setting that reflected on the nation’s journey from colonial rule to republicanism.
Addressing the students in attendance, President Kangaloo said the event represented a powerful intersection of education, culture and youth development.
“To the students I say, you were not invited here simply to watch a performance, you were invited to enter a conversation about who we are, where we have come from and what kind of nation you must help us become.”
However, the President noted that some schools had declined the invitation to attend.
She stressed that opportunities such as these should not be taken lightly, as they provide young people with valuable experiences that may not come again.
“A presidential invitation extended to students is not a routine courtesy. It is an invitation from the Republic to its next custodians. To every School Principal who may receive such an invitation in the future, I respectfully say this, when the Republic opens a door for its children, adults should make every reasonable effort to let them pass through it. Some opportunities do not repeat themselves. A young person’s encounter with history, culture, and civic meaning inside this house deserves to be treated as more than a matter of convenience.”
President Kangaloo also praised the work of the Idakeda Group, whose annual performance of Freedom Morning Come helps preserve and celebrate the nation’s history.
“Through your artistry, you have served education, culture and country. You have reminded us that Caribbean theatre does not merely entertain, it can instruct, provoke thought, preserve memory and enlarge conscience.”
She added that this year’s staging carried even deeper significance, as President’s House, built during the colonial era, now opens its doors to young citizens of a Republic, inviting them to reflect on freedom, dignity and the responsibilities of national life.