International music council post for Niles

 Acting director of the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, Dr Don Niles, has been elected vice-president of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM).

He was elected at the recent world conference in Shanghai, China.

The council was founded in 1947 in formal consultative relations with Unesco. 

It aimed to promote the study, practice, documentation, preservation and dissemination of traditional music and dances of all countries.

The council organised world conferences every two years. 

It also acts as a bond among people of different cultures and promotes world peace.

ICTM publishes the Yearbook for Traditional Music, distributes its online Bulletin, encourages numerous study groups, and maintains wide international representation, including through national committees and liaison officers.

Niles became a member of the ICTM in 1977, when he was still a graduate student and the organisation was still called the International Council for Folk Music. 

He has been the liaison officer for Papua New Guinea since 1980.

Niles attended his first world conference in Seoul, Korea, in 1981, when the name was changed to ICTM. 

He has become more active in the organisation in the last two decades, becoming a member of ICTM study groups, participating in a colloquium, serving on programme committees for world conferences and board member elections.