The Jamaica Observer’s Entertainment Desk continues with the 15th of its biweekly feature looking at seminal moments that have helped shape Jamaica over the past 60 years.

In a bid to preserve and showcase the traditional music of the Jamaican working class, renowed musicologist and social anthropologist Dr Olive Lewin founded the Jamaican Folk Singers in 1967.

Today, 55 years later, what started out as a group of 12 like-minded individuals has grown into a national cultural institution carefully guarding and protecting a national treasure.

Lewin’s groundbreaking work to uncover and archive the traditions of Jamaica’s ordinary folk through their music upset the hegemony that Eurocentric ideals had on what was culturally valid, and unlocked the value of work songs, laments, ring games and traditional practices celebrating milestones such as new life and death which were expressed in song.

She became known as the first lady of folk and upon her passing in 2013, former prime minister the late Edward Seaga eulogised her, noting her passion for what she did

“I asked her to take up the assignment of collecting the folk music that was not yet recorded so as to complete the inventory of our musical soul. She set about the task with a fervent mission. Every parish was her stomping ground. After several years of compiling a rich collection, she completed that phase of her mission. The next phase was the performance of the music, to open the door wider to this cultural wonderland.”

“I wish, [and] I could feel it in my heart, that she was fully recognised in her own life. She goes to her grave only partly covered in the glory she deserves. But God knows this woman of grace, this missionary of our music, this cultural ambassador was a heavenly icon, and he will do the rest to grace her soul as she deserves,” Seaga noted.

Her Jamaican Folk Singers continues her legacy through their annual concert season of performance and the field work done through performances in public markets across Jamaica.

The folk singer also share this rich legacy of Jamaican music to audiences across the globe including world leaders and crowned heads of State.