Culture · 2 min read · Published 26 Oct 2026
REACH Documents Southern Trinidad’s Overlooked Heritage
By the Luk It Hyah newsdesk · Sources · Reporting disclaimer
The Short
The REACH project is combining archaeology, student training and community memories to study southern Trinidad’s Indigenous and plantation-era histories.
Related public figures: Shad Gobinsingh
The Full Story
Archaeological work in southern Trinidad is bringing local landscapes and community memories into a fuller record of the past. The Researching the Environment through Archaeology and Community Heritage project, known as REACH, brings together the National Trust, universities and the Penal/Debe Regional Corporation. In the 26 October Guardian, field director Dr Shad Gobinsingh described the work as a way to address gaps in the area’s history while training local researchers. The National Trust independently describes REACH as a continuing multidisciplinary project begun in 2025.
Sources: National Trust REACH project, 19 Aug 2026 ↗ · Trinidad Guardian e-paper, 26 Oct 2026, p20 ↗
The National Trust says its 2026 fieldwork included investigation at Palmiste Park with UWI students, documentation of the Cedar Grove sugar and copra factory remains, and oral-history interviews in Puzzle Island, Poodai Lagoon and Palmiste. The listed Palmiste archaeological field period ran 10–22 August. The Guardian reports that students worked on surveying, excavation, recording, mapping and interpretation. Those techniques connect objects and sites to written records and residents’ accounts; an artefact alone does not tell a whole community’s story.
Sources: National Trust REACH project, 19 Aug 2026 ↗
Gobinsingh told the Guardian that southern Trinidad has received less archaeological attention than it merits. REACH is therefore both research and training: successive student groups can learn field methods while documenting places affected by cultivation, settlement, flooding and later change. Residents’ memories can identify uses of buildings, water and land that may not appear in formal archives. The project’s public value will depend on how carefully findings are documented, returned to participating communities and distinguished from preliminary interpretations.
Sources: National Trust REACH project, 19 Aug 2026 ↗ · Trinidad Guardian e-paper, 26 Oct 2026, p20 ↗
Story-specific reporting note
The sources reviewed here describe the project and fieldwork, but not a completed excavation report or independently dated conclusions for every site.
Sources
Reader Photos
Share a related photoPhotos are checked before they appear here. The credit name supplied by each contributor is public.
No reader photos have been published for this article yet.