Wondering how we take these signs

Months ago, before this iteration of our coat of arms, when the idea first caught the public’s attention and mockery, there were all sorts of illustrations making the rounds. By far the best was of the shield divided as per Carib and Stag, ships replaced by maxis and the whole flanked by two winer girls.

Undignified? Probably. But us? Can we question the us-ness?

With the inclusion of the steelpan on this or any other national symbol, I have no quarrel. Good for the pan. More pan. Here I stand with the designers of the country – young, old, alive, dead, and all in-between: this is a question of aesthetics. And setting a few things straight.

The Prime Minister is quoted as saying, “Parliament has taken the step to remove the misrepresentation of Columbus’ ships on our national coat of arms.” Because I’m not at all pedantic, this small note has delighted me no end, for that is the one thing this change has done.

The Spanish ships were indeed misrepresented. We grew up being told they were the Pinta, the Nina and the Santa Maria. Those were not the ships Columbus used on the voyage on which he discovered Trinidad; and the ships on the shield were, in fact, all images of the Santa Maria, presumably because copy-and-paste was all the rage even then. Or they lost the files with those drawings.

Either way, we have finally removed the misrepresented ships.

Gillian Bishop is an artist of considerable talent. I do not know what that feels like. I do not know what it feels like to have a sister (in spite of the vast number in my possession) who is the patron saint of the nation. I imagine it must put a little extra steel in your spine.

I have worked with designers all my life, and I know the clearer the brief, the better the outcome. Did Ms Bishop fail to get a good – that is to say, precise – brief? Because this is all the chat from designers. What has taken hold is the how-the-pan-has-been-rendered.

Ms Bishop is not helping us – or herself – here with her responses to questions that all add up to: Why are you in my business? I did as I was asked and there’s an end to it.

But that is not the end. As you would have seen in so many letters to the editor, social media posts and other worthy sources, why remove only one mark of our wretched history when we have the chance to really clean things up? Which of the major creeds and races of TT have helms and plumes? Do we still need the ship’s wheel – are we a great seafaring nation? That somewhat generic palm: have we nothing more unique?

And so to the beleaguered cocrico. No bird has been so lambasted since jumbie birds, and I think even they have fallen out of fashion. No one has a good thing to say about this poor bird. Even Carlisle Chang (yes, there was a committee, but who did the work?), partial designer of the original coat of arms, thought it horrible.

I am aware that since way back in the mists of 1962 these things were done by order of the state. I don’t know exactly who gave the order, but I wish they could take it back and let someone who knows how to construct a detailed brief do it. No shame. We forgive you – indeed, we thank you – already.

So, back to the pan and why we can’t just stay out of a good artist’s business. A bit like the earlier versions, there’s a sense that it does not work seamlessly with the whole. It sort of falls, braps, just so, all gilt and shiny and…and…no. It does not seem to belong to the set.

And we’re all up in this coat of arms because, ladies and gentlemen, in design and government, because it is ours. It means something to us. You can design it, draw it, paint it, sculpt it out of alligator teeth – it is still going to be about us. What are the symbols that we feel represent us and make us proud? Some sort of sea? Fine. Hummingbirds? Sure. Ibis? Why not? Cocrico? Maybe leave in peace in light of its bad press. Pan? Arranged properly.

Everything else? Could-should-please-and-thank-you, reconsider, because surely it’s not worth the backlash. Surely it’s not worth alienating rather than including.

Because we deserve nice things. We deserve the right things.

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