Morning Girl

Content Warning: This section includes discussions of colonization.

Morning Girl focuses on an Indigenous Taíno community in the Bahamas. The Taíno people historically inhabited many Caribbean islands, including Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, and their customs continue to influence these nations’ cultures today.

The Taíno practiced shifting agriculture, growing staple foods such as cassava and yams, along with beans, squash, tobacco, peppers, and peanuts. They gathered wild plants and fruits and relied heavily on fish and shellfish. They also captured and ate small animals, such as lizards and birds. They domesticated dogs and occasionally parrots. The Taíno had a religious system that included worshiping spirits through carved idols. They also had a structured society led by hereditary chiefs and subchiefs with different social classes. For special occasions, Taíno people painted themselves and wore feathers and adornments such as shells (“Religion.” Taíno Museum). Morning Girl gives a glimpse into these traditions. After the storm, Morning Girl describes the community members, each painted and decorated, wearing flattened gold leaves in their earlobes, hibiscus blooms in their hair, and shell necklaces. The novel also highlights the Taíno’s deep respect for nature. Morning Girl loves swimming, running, and picking flowers, and the night sky fascinates her brother, who collects shells.

The Lucayan branch of the Taíno, to which Morning Girl and her family belong, were the first people Christopher Columbus and his crew encountered when they landed on an island in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492; they were the first Europeans to meet the Taíno. Columbus described them as tall, handsome, and noble. Chapter 9 in the novel ends with this encounter, and the epilogue is a journal entry from Columbus dated October 12, 1492. Enslavement and disease reduced the Taíno population to a few thousand by 1520 and near extinction by 1550. Morning Girl foreshadows the tragic fate of the Taíno, contrasting their idyllic life on the island before the arrival of Columbus with the impending devastation.

Despite cultural genocide and near-extinct populations due to colonization, Taíno traditions, language, and inventions have survived, many of which have integrated into contemporary culture. For example, they invented musical instruments such as the maraca and guiro. Common English words like hammock (hamaka), barbeque (barbicu), hurricane (huracán), and maize (mahis) were originally Taíno words. Likewise, various animal names such as iguana (iwana) and manatee (manatí), come from Taíno. Additionally, the Taíno introduced tabaco (tobacco) to the Conquistadors and sports played using a batu, or rubber ball (Maynard, Tekina-eiru. “Taíno History & Taíno Today.” Puerto Rican Cultural Center). Many Caribbean islands have place names of Taíno origin, like Puerto Rico (Borikén), Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and the Bahamas. Various towns and cities across these islands still use Taíno place names. 

Since the 1970s, a Taíno revivalist movement has emerged in the Caribbean to carry on Taíno culture. This movement, embraced by many Caribbean people with Indigenous ancestry, “involves the descendants of Native peoples of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and its US diaspora, uniting under the label Taíno” (Woodaman, Ranald. “Taíno Survival: Back into History.” American Indian). Today, in Puerto Rico, the history of the Taíno is taught in schools.