Ancestor Quao Day Celebration
The Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference & Festival is back. Presenting us yet another opportunity to move into ceremony with our ancestors, selves and each other. We continue to seek to be informed by our past, live in the present and send messages to the future to ensure a viable manifestation of a better life for us and the generations of Jamaicans to come.
17th Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference & Festival
Ancestor Quao Day Celebration
Monday, June 23, 2025
9:00 am – 6:00 pm
The Land: Ancestral Connections, Indigenous Rights, Stewardship – Part 2
Over at least the last 10 years, people have been moving forwards, while simultaneously embracing aspects of cultures from times past. As human beings have become increasing unfulfilled by a materialistic lifestyle, the destruction of the environment, the prevalence of sickness and diseases, emotional, mental and physical un-wellness and the retentions of colonization, there has been growing interest in engaging with spirituality as a broader, more effective framework to use to guide ourselves into more purpose driven, meaningful and fulfilling lives, that leave us feeling more deeply connected with the God being, ourselves, each other and community.
Spirituality was the way of our fore parents. This is becoming increasingly apparent as, having passed through the information age, we entered the Age of Connection/Digital Age where the interest and capacity to rapidly and widely share information globally, has fostered explosive expansion in both individual and collective knowledge bases. This Age of Connection has un-isolated us and made us aware of knowledge and knowledge systems previously hidden from or just not known to us. So now the world is turning even faster, growing smaller and spirituality is on the front burner. One spiritual practice that has walked into modernity is ancestral veneration. Although challenged by colonial religion, we are now aware that many different peoples chose to give honour, respect, gratitude to those who came before and to whom we are biologically and otherwise related. Ancestors are venerated by Indigenous peoples (Taíno, Inuit, Maori), Asian people (Vietnamese, Thai), European people (Celtic, Slavic, Greek) and many, many others.
In venerating their ancestors, the Charles Town Maroons, have set aside a special day, June 23 to specifically celebrate those who triumphed our the British in the 1st Maroon War. The celebration is named in honour of military leader and hero, Captain Quao (The Invisible Hunter) who signed the Windward Peace Treaty in 1739. The Ancestor Quao Day Celebration this year, will be on a Monday. Because the celebration is linked to the date and not set as a specific day, we have had the opportunity to celebrate the ancestors on each day of the week, a fitting tribute to the unceasing war they waged until our freedom was secured. This year’s celebration will happen as a fitting closure to the 17th Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference & Festival. Starting at 9:00 am, it will feature the setting up of the ancestral altar, the pouring of libation, ancestral name calling, a Community tribute to the late Col. Marcia ‘Kim’ Douglas, and other rituals grounded in African, particularly Akan, spirituality. There will be performances and presentations to educate and entertain, guided by the Conference & Festival theme “The Land: Ancestral Connections, Indigenous Rights and Stewardship.” The day will close with an Akom.
With the hosting of the 17th Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference & Festival, the Charles Town Maroons, guests, partners and collaborators pay tribute to all maroon victories, specifically highlighting Ancestor Quao, Thursday born, male child of the Akan people… military strategist… ‘Invisible Hunter,’ who brilliantly led his people in the first Maroon War, (1655 – 1739). Fighting along with his sister, other maroon leaders and peoples, he insisted on our inalienable rights and freedoms. May his name live on and on for years and generations to come.
Charles Town Maroons: www.Maroons-Jamaica.com
