Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Novelist Olive Senior displays her plaque after receiving her Musgrave Gold Medal for excellence in the field of documenting Jamaican Heritage. The presentation was made at a special ceremony at the Institute of Jamaica, downtown Kingston on December 14. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
THE SMALL unassuming woman walks before the gathering and takes the stage. Though one could not tell through any betrayal of nervousness it is a significant moment of achievement, yet not the first for Olive Senior, writer, poet and historian. She is about to
respond to her receipt of the Gold Musgrave Award for her
contribution to the field of Documenting Jamaican Heritage.
The ceremony was recently held in the lecture theatre at the Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), downtown Kingston. The Musgrave Awards, named in honour of the founder of the IOJ, Sir Anthony Musgrave, were first made in 1897. They are given in recognition of achievements in science, literature and art. The gold medal is awarded for excellence, the silver for sustained achievement and the bronze for individual performance.
Senior, who is currently living in Canada, was among the medallists awarded in 2004, though the award was given earlier this month. In her quiet voice, Senior explains that she is quite cognisant of the honour of receiving the award, having herself "feasted" on what the institute has to offer. Revealing much humility she explains that she never imagined herself a recipient of the award, but nonetheless views it as affirmation of her work.
"In the practice of my craft I've tried to combine both the doing and the saying," she said, pulling on proverbs to highlight that it is essential to combine both. She points to her poem Colonial Girl School to highlight the discrepancy that existed between the education being given and those being educated.
By writing about the discrepancy then creating works such as The Encyclopaedia of Jamaica Heritage, Senior captures both the doing and the saying. "I'm fortunate that I'm one of those post-colonial writers who can break that mould and create a new mirror," she said.
ADDING TO THE RICHNESS
This mirror has been held up in both her poetry and her fiction, which has become a staple of Caribbean school curricula, adding to the rich offering of Caribbean literature. Though she migrated from Jamaica in 1989 and has since lived first in Europe and currently in Canada,her work reflects a keen sense of Jamaica and Jamaicans, especially those in the rural landscapes into which she too was born.
Her collections are Talking Trees and Gardening in the Tropics, with the most recent work being Over the Roofs of the World, published this year by Insomniac Press.
Senior has also produced three collections of short stories. Her first, Summer Lightning, published in 1986, won the Commonwealth Writers Prize. Senior's other works of fiction are Arrival of the Snake-Woman and Other Stories (1989) and Discerner of Hearts (1995).
"A masterpiece of Jamaican literature is the short story collection Discerner of Hearts by Olive Senior," read Jean Smith from Senior's citation at the
ceremony, "and Olive Senior is herself the master discerner of the hearts of Jamaican grandmothers, the master discerner of Jamaican childhood and the master discerner of Jamaican rural and urban mores."
NON-FICTION
Her fiction was recognised with the award of a Silver Musgrave in 1988, but now it is time for her non-fiction. Senior's non-fiction works includes the A-Z of Jamaican Heritage (1984) and the more extensive record of Jamaican culture The Encyclopaedia of Jamaican Heritage (2003). The latter was awarded Best Reference Book by the Book Industry Association of Jamaica, while the CHASE fund purchased 500 copies for distribution across the island's libraries and schools. Senior's work in preserving Jamaican Heritage was previously awarded in 2003 with the Norman Washington Manley Award for Excellence.
"Today we meet to publicly tell Miss Senior that the nation is grateful to her for having listened in on the 'big people conversations' and for using her writer's ear and gifts to craft what she heard and has imagined into Jamaican literary and reference masterpieces," the citation read. "Generations to come will call her blessed for putting in print the hopes and fears, the accomplishments and the missteps of a people and a nation and for
giving us a poignant mirror in which to look at ourselves."
