Earth Day is being celebrated this year in Eleuthera on the weekend of the 21st and 22nd April 2012 as one of the Nature Conservancy’s initiatives for this year.

I am delighted to be an active participant at their invitation for various reasons – the Nature Conservancy does important environmental work all over the world to everyone’s benefit, whether they are aware of it or not, and this occasion will be a huge benefit to the Bahama Islands.

I have long been a strong advocate of conservation, preservation and transformation and this is reflected in all my work; this particular celebration will focus attention on what we are doing in our own country to pursue this ethic; and in this instance it is a particularly good fit as I am currently training and mentoring young men and women, under the auspices of the Government Training Programme, in an initiative called The National Bench Programme.

The National Bench Programme Eleuthera based apprentices working at their trade - getting ready to participate in the Earth Day celebrations.

This programme is taking place not only in Nassau but on other islands and I currently have a group of enthusiastic young men in Governor’s Harbour who are creating benches to be placed in different locations throughout the area.  We now have 10 benches produced by these apprentices with the help of some high school students from Eleuthera.  With this programme it is my hope and my intention to not only teach a skill set but to encourage everyone to think about the beautiful environment they have inherited in our Bahamas and how important it is to preserve it for themselves and their children.

I have also created another ‘Sacred Space’ and placed some ‘Sacred Women’ on the beach as I have done previously at Clifton Cay, Blake Road and Taino Beach.  On this celebratory occasion, I will be creating a sculpture at the Leon Levy Preserve – continuing to weave the thread of our history through our islands.

If we want to see change, I believe it is our individual responsibility to make or be part of that change.  I want all of us to be aware that it is in our hands to transform our environment, our land and most of all our attitude.

Antonius Roberts 2012