NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Amid controversy over the commercial rights and monetization of the Junkanoo Parades, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Progressive Liberal Party Chairman Fred Mitchell highlighted the need for public discourse over compensation for contributions to the seasonal parade.
Mitchell added that the government is now looking into bringing about regulations to standardize the cultural parade, so that participants through legislation, can also be ensured compensation for their creative expressions.
“What needs to happen is, in my view as we develop, we have to find a way to properly monetize this so that those who put their labour, not only get their labour compensated but get their artistry also compensated,” he said
The minister said that several years ago the government sent experts,to Brazil to gather information on how Carnival was being monetized and to construct ways that The Bahamas could potentially use a similar model for all involved parties to be compensated including participants such as the designers of the costumes, the choreographers, the bellers, the drummers, the dancers, and the pasters.
He said they are exploring ways that those artists could make a living year-around.
Mitchell said: “People generally see Junkanoo as a volunteer event, they don’t actually put a price for example on the contribution of labour, just take that as one element of Junkanoo, and if you cost out the labour, even using minimum wage, I’m sure that the value of that labour is in the millions of dollars.
“And people contribute their labour, at the moment they do so without the monetary compensation, but there are people and entities in the Bahamas who see the commercial potential of Junkanoo.”
The Foreign Affairs minister noted that he is sure, both the minister of culture and the tourism minister will further discuss the matter.
He however explained that he was told by a senior Junkanooer that between the point of time when the parade lineup numbers are drawn and the end of December about $17 mil is generated in rights accrued.
Mitchell said: “The telephone companies and the commercial entities who buy spaces on Bay Street who have now purchased broadcasting rights obviously see that there is a commercial potential in this product.
“We know that tourist come here and the fact that you sell tickets, means that the work of artists is actually being sold for tourists to come and have a look at it, but the artist themselves don’t get any monetary impact from it,” he said.
Mitchell also stressed that Junkanoo belongs to everyone and so everyone involved should be compensated as artisans in their own right, he made note of the choreography in the Christmas/Boxing Day Junkanoo Parade which he described as, simply extraordinary, stating that it was filmed and will most likely be replicated around the world, and taking this into account, he said that monetization at every stage of the event should be ensured.
“In every other country, such a thing would attract royalties to the people who produce it but it doesn’t for our country, so that’s what I mean we have to look at this.
“[…] There’s a proposal that has been advanced on a way to amend the Copyright Act in the Bahamas, I’ll be asking our ambassador to Geneva, who is Pat Hermans and her connection with WIPO which is the World Intellectual Property Organization, to have a look at this to see whether or not this is something we can recommend to the boarder government,” Mitchell said.
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