Prime Minister Kamla Persad-­Bissessar yesterday announced that Nelson Island will be renamed to honour the “jaha­ji lega­cy” and the thousands of Indian indentured labou­rers who first arrived there from India­—inclu­ding her own maternal great-grandmo­ther, Sumaria Seepersad.

Speaking during a visit to the island with India’s Minister of External Affairs, Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Persad-Bissessar des­cribed the site as deeply symbolic for descendants of indentured labourers who were brought to Tri­nidad before being sent to work on sugarcane plantations.

She announced that a committee headed by permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister Natasha Barrow, together with the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago, would oversee the rena­ming process. A website will also be launched to allow members of the public to submit suggestions for a new name.