Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United
Garifuna arts and culture
Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United is dedicated to preserving the uniqueness of the Garifuna culture, history, language, music, arts & crafts, and spirituality by working closely with the Garifuna community in Los Angeles County and throughout the world. They seek to enhance and showcase the image and vision of the Garifuna people through education, music, and the arts. Their endeavor also includes being able to properly channel the music, dance and the arts to the world. There is a strong, talented, and artistically inclined group of Garifuna artists who are the lifeline of the Garifuna culture; this talent is in danger of being lost if not preserved and/or exposed properly.
The Garifuna — an indigenous people of the Caribbean — come from St. Vincent, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize. Their language, an Arawak-based language, has been recognized by UNESCO as one of the world’s endangered cultural assets.
The Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United received grants from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program in 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009 to support their Garifuna Language and Culture Academy, an educational program that seeks to preserve and disseminate Garifuna culture and language in Southern California. Classes are held throughout the year for both children and adults; youth classes incorporate music, dance, and drumming into the curriculum. The intergenerational classes are held each Saturday and broadcast via the web to hundreds of Garifuna listeners worldwide.