Kezia McLaughlin
Cultural Writer
From the rhythms of the catboat builders to the voices of Heritage Singers, music in the Cayman Islands has always been more than entertainment — it is a living archive.
There is a particular kind of silence that falls over a room when someone begins to sing a song their grandmother taught them. It is not emptiness — it is recognition. In the Cayman Islands, music has long served as the connective tissue between generations, carrying stories that might otherwise be lost to time.
The Heritage Singers, formed in the 1970s, were among the first formal efforts to preserve the folk songs of the islands. Their repertoire drew from the seafaring traditions of Caymanian men who spent months at sea — songs about longing, about the sea's unpredictability, about the pride of returning home.
But preservation is only part of the story. What makes Caymanian music vital today is its evolution. Young artists are weaving traditional rhythms into contemporary production, creating something that honours the past while speaking directly to the present.
At Need Culture, we believe that music is one of the most powerful entry points into cultural understanding. When you hear a song rooted in this place, you don't just learn about Cayman — you feel it. And that feeling is something no textbook can replicate.
Our upcoming Sounds of the Sea concert series is built on this belief. We are bringing together artists who carry these traditions forward — not as museum pieces, but as living, breathing expressions of who we are.
We get asked a lot: what does Need Culture actually do? The short answer is events. The longer answer is that we are in the business of making Caymanian identity visible, legible, and celebrated — not just to the world, but to ourselves.
Culture is not a costume you put on for Heritage Month and take off in September. It is the everyday. It is the way a Caymanian grandmother seasons her fish. It is the particular cadence of our speech. It is the instinct to look after your neighbour before yourself.
When we produce an event, we are not creating culture — we are creating the conditions for culture to be seen. We are building a stage, literally and figuratively, for things that already exist to be honoured.
That distinction matters to us. We are not outsiders packaging Caymanian identity for consumption. We are Caymanians who believe that our culture deserves the same production quality, the same intentionality, the same investment that any world-class cultural institution would bring.
That is what we mean when we say Need Culture. Not that culture is lacking — but that culture is necessary. Essential. Non-negotiable.
Miss Ivy has been weaving thatch since she was seven years old. Her hands move with a certainty that comes from decades of practice — pulling, folding, pressing — each motion a small act of memory. She learned from her mother, who learned from hers.
Thatch weaving is one of the oldest crafts in the Cayman Islands, born of necessity in a place where the silver thatch palm grew abundantly and imported goods were scarce. Hats, baskets, fans — the palm provided everything.
Today, the craft is endangered. Fewer young people are learning it, and those who do often struggle to find markets that value the labour involved. A well-made thatch hat can take days to complete. It is not a product that fits neatly into the economics of fast fashion.
But something is shifting. A new generation of Caymanian makers — weavers, carvers, boat builders — is reclaiming these crafts not as nostalgic hobbies, but as deliberate cultural statements. They are selling at markets, teaching workshops, and building communities of practice.
At our upcoming Craft & Culture Market, we are dedicating significant space to these makers. Not as a heritage exhibit — as vendors. Because the best way to honour a craft is to buy it, use it, and pass it on.
Before there were cookbooks, there were kitchens. And in Caymanian kitchens, the recipes were passed mouth to ear, hand to hand, generation to generation. The measurements were a handful of this, a pinch of that, cook it until it smells right.
Caymanian cuisine is a record of survival. The islands had no natural freshwater sources and limited arable land. The sea was the pantry. Turtle, conch, fish — these were not delicacies, they were staples. The creativity that emerged from these constraints is extraordinary.
Heavy cake — dense, sweet, made with cassava and coconut — is one of the most distinctly Caymanian foods in existence. It appears at every significant gathering: funerals, weddings, Heritage Day. It is comfort and continuity in a single slice.
What concerns us is the gradual disappearance of these foods from everyday Caymanian life. As the islands have become more cosmopolitan, the local food culture has been crowded out by international chains and imported tastes.
Need Culture is not a food company. But we believe that any serious conversation about Caymanian culture has to include the table. At our events, you will always find local food — not as a novelty, but as a statement.
Miss Elva is 84 years old. She remembers when George Town was a quiet settlement of wooden houses, when the roads were unpaved, when the boats went out and sometimes did not come back. She remembers the names of people who have no living descendants to remember them.
Every elder who passes takes with them a library. Not just facts and dates — but textures, smells, the particular quality of light on a certain afternoon in 1962. These things cannot be recovered once they are gone.
Oral history is not a backup plan. It is the plan. For cultures that were not centred in the written record — and Caymanian culture, like many small island cultures, was not — the spoken word is the primary archive.
Our Oral History Workshop series is built on this understanding. We are not just recording stories — we are training a new generation of listeners. People who know how to ask the right questions, how to hold space for memory, how to honour what they are given.
If you have an elder in your life, sit with them. Ask them about the things they have never been asked about. You may be surprised what you find.
musicheritagetraditioncommunity
