Writes and Kulcha is the official media partner of the Jamaica Hummingbird Community of Taino and Maroon Peoples—also known as the Yukayeke¹ Yamaye² Guani³ . On their behalf, we publish information about Yamaye Taino, who are current descendants of Jamaica’s first peoples and are actively attempting to dispute the inaccurate historical narrative of their extinction— a consequence of European ‘paper genocide’. As a result, we use words and phrases in Island Arawakan (also known as Wahiyani or Eyeri in other territories) to help them retain their language and promote their culture. Please read the footnotes for definitions of terminology used earlier in this text.

1. Yukayeke – Tribe or community ↩︎
2. Yamaye (Ya = Spirit), (Ma= Great/Big), (Ye- Coast) – this is the term by which the island’s First Peoples (the Taino) connected the island, so Jamaica for them was Yamayeka, shortened to Yamaye. ↩︎
3. Guani – a type of hummingbird; the term is also used to mean ‘our possession’ ↩︎

N.b. You can access the full glossary of Taino/Island Arawakan terms here, and, here, a list of ‘loan words’ you may not have known are of Taino origin.