Twenty-year-old crowd favourite Romichelle Brumell was crowned Miss Cultured Guyana (MCG) on Saturday evening in an electrifying ceremony at the Umana Yana in Kingston, Georgetown, where she underscored the value of the Indigenous experience and perspectives.
She made these comments in response to her final question, which sought to ascertain which aspect of her platform she would pursue to achieve the objective which read “to promote the importance of a comprehensive Indigenous curriculum to erase cultural erasure”.
In Brumell’s view, there is want of readily available comprehensive information on Indigenous literature which, according to her, could bring more awareness of their culture, a response which was made at a seemingly fitting venue, the Umana Yana, an Indigenous cultural landmark in Guyana.
“The aspect I would choose would be literature, because for Indigenous literature, there isn’t much information on the Indigenous people. You can check the textbooks, you can check online – there isn’t much and I believe that as our first people, they deserve the respect to have a concise curriculum focused on them, so that children would not become ignorant of their culture,” the young lady noted.
Brumell’s response was greeted by a resounding round of applause from audience members, who were unapologetic in their favouritism towards her throughout the night’s events. The young woman’s noted hobbies included singing, playing hockey, painting, writing and being a volunteer. However, her talents did not end at these, as the gathering was informed that the pageant’s winner was the designer of most of the costumes that adorned her, including the gown worn during the evening wear segment.
Her noted inspiration for joining pageantry was her belief that it could promote transformation and build confidence in women, while encouraging participants to celebrate their beauty, femininity and intelligence.
The delegates competed in the categories of Introduction, Talent, Presentation on an Indigenous Cultured Personality, Catwalk Challenge, Creative Cultural Cocktail Wear, Creative Cultural Creek Wear, Professional Wear, Intelligence and Creative Cultural Evening Wear.
Twenty-two-year-old Faith Harding, whose hobbies include poetry and singing, copped the first runner-up spot while aspiring model Jenel Bennett, 23, secured the second runner-up spot. The remaining contestant Akita Joseph, 18, did not participate on the night of the pageant. The Miss Cultured Guyana Pageant came into existence in March 2016 under the stewardship of Lloyd N De Arts Production.
Delegates were exposed to various cultural activities such as an educational training programme designed to revive their knowledge about our local culture and training sessions on cultured topics. The inaugural MCG Pageant had seen seven beautiful, talented and cultured young women competing for the title. (Shemuel Fanfair)
