Islands of the Essequibo River

Before there was Guyana, before there were borders, plantations,

or names on maps, there was the river. The Essequibo, wide, ancient,

patient, flowed north from the heart of the land toward the Atlantic.

Where the river slowed and where fresh water met the tide, land began to rise.

Not suddenly and not dramatically, but grain by grain. These became the islands at the heads

of the Essequibo. Long before Europeans arrived, Indigenous peoples lived with the river

rather than against it. The Arawak and Carib fished its creeks, traveled its channels,

and planted on higher ground. To them, the islands were not possessions