Australia - ‘What part of Jamaica is Trinidad?’  This was the question which was repeatedly being asked wherever and whenever Alvin Rostant played his steelpan in Australia.  This drove him to set the record straight.  In so doing he established his own “Australian Academy of Steel Drums” wherein he scripted a story for Primary Schools entitled “Banana Joe,” and another for High Schools called “Calypso Drums.”  He was subsequently contracted by the Queensland Arts Council in-schools touring programme which saw him taking the programme on the road to close to one thousand schools.  Rostant, a former San Fernando Technical Institute soccer standout in Trinidad in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, was being interviewed ‘on air’ from Australia by Hollis Clifton - Pan Diaspora Visionary - and Kenny Phillips, CEO of WACK Radio 90.1 FM in San Fernando, Trinidad & Tobago. 

A peeved Rostant explained that Banana Joe was a steelpan/dramatic production which puts the steelpan into a historical and geographical perspective, and includes Trini characters like “Fish Eye.”  It also explains the stages that a crude drum goes through on its way to becoming a fine-tuned acoustic, percussion musical instrument.  The educational initiative has been ongoing over the last seven years - and unlike many other programmes - aims at providing the truth to the younger generation Australian about the steelpan, the only musical invention since the twentieth century.

In response to a question by Kenny Phillips about the songs being used and the possibility of the production being adapted for Trinidad and Tobago, Rostant answered in the affirmative, adding that minor changes would need to be made seeing that the steelpan originated in Trinidad and Tobago.  The show begins with traditional pans (pan round the neck) with five pieces being used; the first being “Waltzing Matilda.”  This enables the children to start with something they are familiar with.  Other genres include reggae and calypso.  Players sing along to “Jump and Wave” (calypso) and that opens the way for Alvin Rostant as narrator to tell the story of pan.

Hollis posited that Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) has not really been aggressive in promoting the steelpan as a product of T&T vis a vis Jamaica’s promotion of reggae via Bob Marley.  Both Rostant and Phillips lamented the shortsightedness of T&T in not being able to see the bigger picture.

Rostant then indicated that before he got to Australia in the 1970s he did not think people would want to play the steelpan, but that now there are over a thousand bands throughout the world.

Clifton proposed that the T&T government should make it a policy that every pan made in Trinidad and Tobago should carry a stamp stating “Trinidad & Tobago - the home of the Steelpan” and include the manufacturer and the manufacturer’s serial number for proper identity.  The country’s Bureau of Standards should insist on this, said Clifton.  Phillips questioned the labeling of those pans made outside of Trinidad & Tobago.

Empathizing with Rostant’s frustration at the question ‘What part of Jamaica is Trinidad?’ - Clifton made a personal comparison from his own travels across the continent of Africa in which a similar arrogance and ignorance of geography persists in that whenever he had to present his T&T passport to immigration, authorities very few officials could have imagined where Trinidad & Tobago was situated. They often linked it as part of the USA; however, they were able to link names like footballer Dwight Yorke and cricketer Brian Lara to the twin-island state.

Clifton then asked Rostant what was his involvement in “Mission Australia.”  Saying that this was an Australian government-funded project from 2001—2003, the latter explained that his contribution was through the teaching of the steelpan every six months which climaxed with a concert.  All participants were involved in some form or the other: either as panists, or lighting or sound technicians, in marketing, printing of T-shirts, or some other field activity related to the production.  The project was also linked to “Beat of the Drum” - a Queensland Arts Council 2002 venture which was a recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for “Caring for the Community.”