The 5th Melanesian Festival of Arts and Culture ended down on Friday in Papua New Guinea (PNG) following two weeks of vibrant and unique cultural exchanges between the people’ s of Melanesia.
The Solomon Islands Government has sent a 168 strong delegation representing many of the country’ s provinces to showcase and share some of our unique arts and cultures during the two-weeks event throughout Papua New Guinea.
The country’s active participation at this year’s festival highlights the Government’s commitment to build the cultural sector and to promote and preserve our arts and cultures which are at risk of dying out.
Head of Delegation to the Solomon Islands contingent and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, John Wasi said was satisfied with our representation in the last two weeks.
“It is pleasing to see that our performances in music, dance, art and crafts, fashion design and theatre performances drawing so much attention at all Festival venues throughout Papua New Guinea,” he said last week.
Mr Wasi stressed that attending festivals to showcase the way of life and talents of the people of Solomon Islands is important for the promotion of the country to the outside world.
He however, called on all cultural stakeholders throughout Solomon Islands not to over invent cultures that will eventually displace our unique original cultures, but to be vigilant in our cultural practices.
In the many organised forums that took place on the sidelines of the festival, many Melanesian leaders and cultural experts called on all Melanesian Government leaders to push for a strong cultural foundation for Melanesia which stretches from East Timor, West Papua, PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji.
Many have echoed that Melanesia could be the last frontier in the world in terms of cultural diversity and uniqueness which is at risk of disappearing if nothing is done to prevent the advent of cultural erosion in the face of globalisation.
Solomon Islands participants were proud to represent the country, especially, traveling around to other regions of Papua New Guinea to highlight and share our cultural differences and commonalities with the other Melanesians during the last two weeks.
The last two weeks have brought many lessons for our participants in terms of learning the cultures and arts of other Melanesians which now gave them the opportunity to understand and appreciate that Melanesia is rich in arts and culture which must be preserved and promoted for our generations to come.
The only unfortunate incident that struck the local contingent was the passing away of one of their leaders late John Tahinao.
Our delegation arrived back in the country on Saturday on a chartered flight.
