Equity Trust Fund Borrower Projects
Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society - Sapelo Island, GA
The Sapelo Island Cultural & Revitalization Society (SICARS) is working to revitalize Hog Hammock, the last Gullah/Geechee community in the Sea Islands of Georgia. The residents of Hog Hammock are descendents of the slaves brought to the United States in 1802. During the last two hundred years, the community has developed a rich tradition of folk arts and crafts, a unique language, and its own music, storytelling, cuisine, and dance.
By
nature, islands have very limited availability of land. For the residents
of Sapelo Island, the land squeeze is intensified by several factors. Sapelo
Island has 16,000 acres of salt marsh, maritime forest, beach, and dune
areas. R.J.Reynolds, Jr., who owned a large part of the island, created
the Marine Institute of the University of Georgia and forced the Gullah
communities to be moved inland to Hog Hammock. At one time, there were five
Gullah settlements on the island. This move caused the Gullah community's
infrastructure, based on farming and fishing, to fail. Unable to make ends
meet, most of the residents left the island at this point. After Reynolds
death, the northern two thirds of the island were sold to Georgia's Department
of Natural Resources (DNR) forming a State Wildlife Management Area leaving
roughly 450 acres for the residents in the interior section of the island.
SICARS was established in 1993 to increase viable economic opportunities for mainstream society. Today Hog Hammock has 70 residents. If the Gullah community is to stay together, residents must have land on which to live, and work that can support a the residents of Hog Hammock, and to protect the Gullah culture from being bulldozed by family and pay for the taxes on the land. SICARS has formed a Community Land Trust to help prevent land being sold away from the community. To preserve the cultural resources of the Gullah community, SICARS has created an oral history project and Gullah craft-teaching project. The organization has begun a clam aquaculture project and is fostering the development of other sustainable businesses on the island, mostly in the tourism sector, and in the sale of arts and crafts.
With all of these projects underway, SICARS badly needed a centrally-located building out of which to work. Equity Trust gave SICARS a loan to complete a community center, which has just been finished. The center includes office space for the organization, a large computer lab, and community meeting space for seminars and workshops.
We possessed the vision but, through many years of community organizing, there was a need for professional counsel and support. Equity Trust and our legal advisors have aided us tremendously. Equity Trust, as consultant, has helped us to make positive decisions and have provided a loan for the successful construction of a community center. The willingness of Equity Trust to help finance the purchase of this land provides a source of confidence for us. Our mission of cultural preservation, land retention and economic development is beginning to seem more of a reality. God Bless!"
-- Carolyn Dowse Executive Director, SICARS
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