The streets of Bermuda's capital, Hamilton, are filled with dancers in masks and covered from head to toe in brightly-colored regalia — lime green, yellow, pink, orange and white. Performers wear towering headdresses topped with peacock feathers. Drummers are walking to an infectious beat.
Gombey dancers are a cultural icon in Bermuda. Today, the Warwick Gombey Troupe is celebrating Bermuda Day, a national holiday.
Performing is a way to honor his family, said Irwin Trott, master drummer and the troupe's founder.
"The minute we started, I was in the moment, and it was almost like I was drumming for all our ancestors that had passed," he said while resting on a park bench after the dazzling performance. "Sometimes when I’m in the mood of drumming, especially next to my son, there’s an element that we get ourselves in that is hard to explain in words."
The high-energy drumming and dance tradition has ties to Native America, and reflects the influence of Native peoples who were captured in New England centuries ago and shipped to the island.
The tradition’s origins are deep and wide, with roots not just in Native America, but also West Africa, the Caribbean and Britain.
Trott is a descendant of Native captives who were kidnapped in New England and sold into slavery in Bermuda. He has made promoting the Gombey art form his life’s work. Trott is also committed to shining a special light on Gombey’s Indigenous roots and honoring its Native influences.
‘What is Bermudian?’
Trott explains that for years it was accepted that Gombey tradition had African roots. But less attention was paid to the influence of Native American culture.
"Many, many years ago when the Gombey culture was passed on the oral tradition, the only few comments in regards to Native American influence would be the bow and arrow or one of the tomahawk hatchets," props held by the dancers, he said.
He said that although Native presence has always been part of Gombey culture, one reason it was less acknowledged was because of racist colonial stereotypes.
"Early histories depict them as savages, uncivilized," he said. "That was [how] the colonial powers ... viewed slaves.”
Centuries ago, Bermuda's enslaved Native Americans intermarried with the island's enslaved and free African and European communities. A unique cultural mix was born, and that mix is at the core of Gombey tradition.
Gombey began more than 200 years ago. At Christmastime, dancers and drummers would parade through Bermuda's streets. The Gombeys became a symbol of resistance against slavery and oppression. When colonists began to fear that Gombey dancing and drumming might incite revolt, they banned the practice in 1761.
But Gombey endured.
Trott’s son is another master drummer. Trae Trott says when settlers first arrived in Bermuda, it was uninhabited. There was no native population in Bermuda. So everyone in Bermuda is descended from ancestors brought to the island by boat. He says when Gombey performers and others see their Indigenous roots more clearly, they more fully understand who they are.
"Because ... what is Bermudian?" he said. "But seeing where it’s come from now, I think is what’s important. That’s what ties in with what it means to be Bermudian."
Traditionally, Gombey dance and drumming skills are passed down orally in families. Troupes are almost exclusively boys and men. Dancers start performing as young as 6 years old, and some continue into their 60s. Trae Trott says his father’s Warwick Gombey Troupe offers boys a strong, supportive male community.
"Warwick Gombey Troupe. WGT. It also stands for Wisdom, Guidance and Truth," Trott said. "It was a thing set out by my daddy to provide a positive outlet. And in doing so, these kids learn where they’ve come from. They now have a sense of pride in who they are."
At the Bermuda Day celebration, 23-year old dancer Jeremiah Samuels said Gombey culture is inspiring.
"As a young male, growing into my own manhood, it was really something that I just wanted to be a part of," he said.
Xario Smith and Azaiah Simmons, both 8 years old, are experienced performers
Xario said that when he hears the Gombey drummers start to play, "it feels like it’s a vibration all around the city,"
"It feels amazing, you have fun,” Azaiah added. “But the one rule is to stay in line and have energy. I always have energy even if I’m tired.”
‘We are here and alive’
The Warwick Gombeys perform internationally, including at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. The troupe first danced in New England in 2003 in Connecticut at the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation’s annual powwow, Schemitzun.
Irwin Trott and the Warwick Gombeys were back at Schemtizun in August.
Trott said each time he’s on Northeast homelands, he imagines what life might have been like had history been different.
"It conjures up in the mind, ‘I wonder what it would have been like being raised here on the reservation,'" Trott said. "We never got to do that. We were shipped off."
At Schemitzun, the crowd watched as the Gombey dancers paraded into a sacred circle. Then, Trott picked up the microphone and said that being in New England fills their hearts with joy.
"Cause when we dance on our ancestors’ ground, it gives us power, it gives us strength," he said.
He told the crowd that what they were witnessing was the result of a tragedy – when colonizers stole Native peoples.
"And sent them far, far away to separate us, to destroy us, to take our language, to take our culture from us," Trott said. "But I'm here to tell you: We are here and alive. We are here and alive."
