Dear Editor – First and foremost let me take this opportunity to thank Dennis Marite (interim President) and his executive to have seen the importance and recognised the need to have the Solomon Island Music Federation revived, restructured and back to business again.
Congratulation boys for standing up for our musicians and music industry, you have indeed brought hope for our aspiring musicians and current musical groupings and bands who had struggled to survive or to make ends meet.
So keep up the good work boys and strive for the advancement of both the organisation and the Music Industry of this country.
Music is also a huge industry in other countries the likes of UK, US and Canada for example, they fetched in huge foreign exchange into their countries.
Unfortunately for us in the Solomons, music or entertainment for that matter has never been considered as an industry, our leaders have seen it as just for pleasure, recreational and for fun.
We have not at all looked deeper into the potential of this emerging industry, as such we have potentially ignored it and has never ever make provisions within government budgetary allocations towards the industry.
In our country we talked about industries such as timber, agriculture (coconut, cocoa, crops), fisheries, food, retail and wholesale trades as the only industries available which also attracted both government and donor’s financial injections of millions of dollars.
Nothing much has been injected into the music or entertainment industry,
Lest we forget music is an industry just likes any other industry, it’s marketable and exportable, it can bring tangible foreign exchange into the country just like the other industries, it provides employment opportunities especially for young generations, and it heals the mind and soul just like medicine it cures.
So everybody benefits – the musicians, instrument owners, recording studio, crews, engineers, retail shops owners and the country.
The wealth it creates is phenomenal, but we have to start now if we are to capture its full potentials.
The political Government must first of all recognised and add to its industries “the Music Industry” as one of its many industries, therefore like the others injected financial provisions or allocations to this very emerging but potential industry assigning the Music Federation as the sole authority to negotiate with the Government on policy matters of concern to them and the overall industry.
We have injected millions of dollars to other industries so why not do the same to the Music and Entertainment industry.
Now that the Solomon Islands Music Federation had revived itself and put themselves in good form, I guess they must be working on their missions, plans and programme.
We have all sorts of music from traditional/cultural, religious and contemporary that needs to be artistically revived and nurtured.
Honiara and our provincial towns and communities have no events, we need to create more and more events to entertain our people and perhaps our visitors, we need to innovate new talents, skills etc, hopefully that is an area our musicians and the federation are working towards achieving.
May I conclude to thank our local musicians who have participated in regional music festivals and promoted Solomon Islands music and culture overseas.
The likes of Shazy, Dezine, DMP and recently the Kaumaakonga band from Renbel Province.
Nothing is impossible if they can do it we can do it too, so let us strive together to achieve our common goal that is to develop our musicians and the Music Industry so as to contribute to socio-economic development of our country.
Music is life!
Henry J Star Dora
Former President (Founding)
Solomon Islands Music Federation
