Official Name: | Wakapau |
Settlement Type: | Village |
Dot Y: | --> |
Pushpin Map: | Guyana |
Pushpin Label Position: | bottom |
Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Guyana |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Name: | Guyana |
Subdivision Type1: | Region |
Subdivision Name1: | Pomeroon-Supenaam |
Unit Pref: | Imperial |
Population As Of: | 2012 |
Population Footnotes: | [1] |
Population Total: | 1,807 |
Population Blank1 Title: | Ethnicities |
Population Blank2 Title: | Religions |
The Arawak village of Wakapau (or Wakapoa) is located in the Pomeroon-Supenaam Region of Guyana, on the Wakapau River, a tributary on the west bank of the Pomeroon River, from its mouth. The name originates from the Lokono word ‘Wakokwãn’, which means pigeon.[2] The village is composed of twenty inhabited islands. Some of the islands only contain a single family.[3]
Wakapau was one of the ten original "Indian reservations" of British Guiana.[4] The village is an example of an Amerindian community that has not only preserved the traditional Arawak culture, but also retained its tribal language.[5] The community consists of island settlements in the swamps surrounded by forests. The economy is based on logging, subsistence farming and boat services.[6]
It has three primary and one secondary school.[7]