Dominica is home to a wide range of people. Although it was historically occupied by several native tribes, the Arawaks and Kaliango Carib tribes remained by the time European settlers reached the island. 'Massacre' is a name of a river dedicated to the murders of the Native villagers by French and British settlers, because the river ran red with blood for days. Each (French and British) claimed the island and imported slaves from Africa. The remaining Caribs now live on a 3,700-acre (15 km2) territory on the east coast of the island. They elect their own chief. This mix of cultures is important to Dominica.
The famed novelist Jean Rhys was born and raised in Dominica. The island is obliquely depicted in her best-known book, Wide Sargasso Sea. Recently, Caribbean writer Marie-Elena John's debut novel Unburnable has evoked much of the same spirit of Dominica captured by Rhys, prompting comparisons between the two novels[10] in spite of the hundred-year difference, and suggesting that Dominica has remained one of the Caribbean's most pristine islands. Rhys's friend, the political activist and writer Phyllis Shand Allfrey, set her 1954 novel, The Orchid House (ISBN 0-8135-2332-X), in Dominica.
Music and dance are important facets of Dominica's culture.The annual independence celebrations show an outburst of traditional song and dance preceded since 1997 by weeks of Creole expressions such as "Creole in the Park" and the "World Creole Music Festival". Dominica gained prominenece on the international music stage when in 1973, Gordon Henderson founded the group Exile One and an original musical genre which he coined "Cadence-lypso" which paved the way for modern Creole music.
Media and communication
Currently, Dominica has three major newspapers, The Sun, The Times, and The Chronicle. There are two national television stations and a few radio stations, including Q95 FM, the Dominica Broadcasting Corporation, and Kairi FM.
Before 2004, there was only one telecommunication company called Cable and Wireless. Shortly after that, Digicel and a UK-based company called Orange started to offer service to the island. There are a number of mobile networks operating on the island.
Film and TV
In 1991, the British film The Orchid House, starring Elizabeth Hurley and Madge Sinclair was shot entirely on island. In 2004, many of the scenes of the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and At World's End were shot in Dominica. In spring of 2007, CBS filmed its first pirate-related TV show called Pirate Master in Dominica.
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