- Source: Alalapadu
Alalapadu is a Tiriyó village in the Sipaliwini District of Suriname. The village was founded by Baptist missionaries next to the Alalapadu Airstrip in order to concentrate the Tiriyó of the area in one central village.
History
In 1961 the missionary Claude Leavitt accompanied with a group of Wai-Wai Amerindians convinced the chief of the village Panapipa to settle into a modern village. The entire population moved in to what became known as Alalapadu. Up to the 1970s, it was biggest Tiriyó village in Suriname. Between 1976 and 1977, Alalapadu was mostly abandoned in favour of the new settlement of Kwamalasamutu, as the soils surrounding the village became depleted. Alalapadu was never completely abandoned, however, and in 1999, some Tiriyó again permanently settled in the vicinity of the old village. The new village is sometimes known as Alalapadu II. Granman Ashongo had requested its rebuilding.
Overview
There is no electricity. The economy is based small-scale farming. There is no school, and children have to go to boarding school in Kwamalasamutu. There is a Baptist church in the village. In 2017, a Brazil nut oil production facility opened in Alalapadu.
Notes
References
Heemskerk, Marieke; Delvoye, Katia (2007). Trio Baseline Study: A sustainable livelihoods perspective on the Trio Indigenous Peoples of South Suriname (PDF). Paramaribo: Stichting Amazon Conservation Team-Suriname.
Mans, Jimmy (2012). Amotopoan trails: a recent archaeology of Trio movements. Leiden: Sidestone Press. hdl:1887/19857. ISBN 978-90-8890-098-3.
Mans, Jimmy; Carlin, Eithne B. (2015). Movement through Time in the Southern Guianas: Deconstructing the Amerindian Kaleidoscope. Leiden: Brill.
Wekker, J.; Molendijk, M.; Vernooij, J. (1992). De eerste volken van Suriname. Paramaribo: Stichting 12 oktober 1992.