page_title: Kalina people
section_title: Geographic distribution
hierarchical_section_title: Kalina people / The Kali'na today / Geographic distribution
caption_attribution_description: Schoolmeisjes in nl:Bigi Poika. Eigen opname
context_page_description: The Kalina, also known as the Caribs, mainland Caribs and several other names, are an indigenous people native to the northern coastal areas of South America. Today, the Kalina live largely in villages on the rivers and coasts of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and Brazil. They speak a Cariban language known as Carib. They may be related to the Island Caribs of the Caribbean, though their languages are unrelated.
context_section_description: The part of South America where the Kali'na live is very sparsely populated.  However, the people of this ethnic group are such an extreme minority in all of the countries in which they are well established that locally they are a majority only in certain very secluded areas. Their current geographic distribution covers only a small fraction of their Pre-Columbian territory.
  In Brazil, they are especially localized in São José dos Galibi, a village founded in 1950 on the right bank of the Oyapock River opposite Saint-Georges in French Guiana by several families who came from the region of the Mana River. They are also in the capital of Amapá, Macapá, and in Pará, in Belém.
  In French Guiana, they are still present in significant numbers in their original territory, the region between the Maroni and the Mana rivers (in particular, the communities of Awala-Yalimapo, the only one where they are a majority, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, Mana and Iracoubo), and the Amerindian village of Kourou as well as, in fewer numbers, the island of Cayenne.
  In Guyana, they settled on the Barama and Pomeroon Rivers, and in the Northwest of the country.
  In Suriname, they are a strong presence on the left bank of the Maroni River and on the banks of the Coppename River.
  In Venezuela, the country where their numbers are the greatest, they can be found in two distinct zones: in the llanos of the Orinoco river valley and on the Cuyuni River valley part of which is in Guyana.  See also Chimire, Venezuela.
caption: Kali'na girls in Suriname in the village of Bigi Poika.
exif: {}