–?? ?Jennifer Wishart is a ‘Special Person’“If you know where you come from, it is only then that you can chart your future.”By Neil MarksWhen fellow anthropologists in the Caribbean get excited about having unearthed fossils 400 years old or thereabouts, Jennifer Wishart bursts out in laughter.She is not being dismissive, of course, of finds in other parts of the region. But she is justly proud of what she has been able to uncover here in Guyana – like the skeletal remains of an 18-year-old woman and her unborn fetus she dug out of a shell mound in Barabina in the North West District. The woman, most likely an Amerindian of the Warrau nation,NFL Jerseys From China, is thought to have lived thousands of years ago.But there are yet still more exciting archeological finds that Wishart says could redefine the way we look at our history as Guyanese.Jennifer Wishart in the Walter Roth Museum, which she now directs.Why, she talks of having been part of a group that unearthed what is believed to be elephant bones! The discovery was made back in 2009 when she took a group of University students to Wyva in the Barama River. The confirmation is yet to come, but there is a strong suspicion that it could be just what is imagined.It is not too far-fetched considering that we would not have thought giant sloths of the Dinosaur age walked these parts until fossil remains and footprints were discovered here. A replica of what that sloth might have looked like, standing some 15 feet tall and weighing approximately three tons, is now the showpiece at the National Museum.Wishart has had a longstanding interest in Guyana’s first peoples, but it was a chance opportunity to work with the famed Guyanese archaeologist, novelist and artist, Dennis Williams, that sent her into the fields to discover a Guyana that was untold and fascinating.Early lifeWishart was born in 1945, the year the Great Fire destroyed most of the commercial heart of Georgetown, eating up a number of historical and architectural buildings that shaped the city.Her mother, Ethel Grimshaw, was a result of the union of the descendants of Black slaves and the White plantation owners, while her father,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, D’Arcy Wishart, was a descendant of the Wisharts who came to these shores from Scotland to help administer the plantations. D’Arcy Wishart was proud of his Scottish background, and although he never went there, he regaled the young Jennifer, her brother and four sisters with many a Scottish tale.In fact, whatever it counts for, Wishart reveals that one of her relatives, Alexander Wishart, died in the first railroad accident in British Guiana. Her mother was actually from Meten-Meer-Zorg, a village on the West Coast Demerara, named by the Dutch.? Her father later worked as an overseer with the drainage and irrigation authority.Jennifer Wishart was born at Beterverwagting, a village on the East Coast of Demerara. She went to the St Mary Virgin Anglican School in the village, where she completed her primary education.Her parents could not afford to send all the children to high school. Jennifer and her other sister, Ann, ended up in that bracket. But as time would tell, that did not prevent them from having fruitful and rewarding lives. In fact, Ann, who now lives in St Lucia, once served as Guyana’s Honorary Consul to Dominica.As a child, Jennifer Wishart enjoyed life in the country, and the values instilled in her would later prove to be an asset in her later life.“When you grow up in the country, everyone in the community live like one family,” she says, looking back at the time when neighbours “controlled” you when you parents were way. If discipline was administered by the neighbours, you dare not complain to your parents, or there would be an additional dose of licks, she added.When her older sisters found work in the city, the entire family moved to Georgetown. While she could not attend high school, Wishart undertook a course with the International Correspondence School.Part of the course involved British Geography, but Wishart was not inclined.Standing on a raised field at Versailles, West Bank Demerara. “I wasn’t interested; I live here,” she reasoned. Getting a 98% pass in English Language was good enough for a young Wishart. She did other courses including tying and shorthand, which she hated.In time, she found work as a teaching assistant at St Gabriel’s Nursery School, taking home a salary of $12.Later, she was offered a job at St Margaret’s Primary, which was owned by her cousin, Winifred Hunter.? She was given a teaching position and trained on the job.“From 1:30-3:00 in the afternoon, we got sound teacher training,” Wishart recalls. She would go on to teach for 14 years, and then moved on.She next worked at GuyFesta, the Festival that was a precursor to the Caribbean Festival of Arts (Carifesta). From there, she was