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The National Weekender
MUSIC
The book Celebrating the International Council for Traditional Music. – Pictures supplied

By DON NILES
THE International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) is the pre-eminent scholarly organisation that aims to further the study, practice, documentation, preservation, and dissemination of traditional music and dance of all countries.
I have been a member since I was a student, over 45 years ago, and I have frequently given papers on Papua New Guinea music at their international conferences. But I became increasingly involved in other aspects of the council when I served as editor of its journal, and when elected to its executive board as an ordinary member in 2007 and eventually as a vice president. I also became very interested in its history.
Being involved in the governance of ICTM has been a great honour for me personally and, I hope, an indication of what is possible from Papua New Guinea.
In July, ICTM held its 46th world conference in Lisbon, Portugal. With the support of the National Cultural Commission, ICTM itself, and the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, I was thrilled to be able to attend. But this time, I was also involved in something very special.
At the conference’s opening ceremony on July 21, there was also the launch of a book, Celebrating the International Council for Traditional Music: Reflections on the First Seven Decades.
I am very proud to have been co-editor of this book with my two colleagues and friends, Svanibor Pettan and Naila Ceribaši?. Svanibor, from Slovenia, is ICTM president, and Naila, from Croatia, is a member of the executive board.
This book consists of almost 500 pages, with 65 authors contributing to 66 chapters. Many historic photographs illustrate the text of almost a quarter of a million words. And the book weighs over 2kg.

Svanibor Pettan, Naila Ceribaši, and Don Niles at the book launch.

I authored or co-authored nine chapters about a wide variety of subjects: The origins of the council, its first president and by-laws, a period about the secretariat that looks after its operations, study groups, its journal and other publications, etc.
After Svanibor circulated his original thoughts on the organisation of a volume to celebrate the council in 2017, it would be almost five years before the book would be completed. Of course, Covid-19 delayed things, but it was also a complicated undertaking to deal with so many authors on a such wide variety of topics.
The council was established in 1947 in London, just a few years after the devastating horrors of World War II. Its original name was the International Folk Music Council, but this was changed to ICTM in 1981, coincidentally my first world conference.
ICTM is a non-governmental organisation in formal consultative relations with Unesco and by means of its wide international representation and the activities of its study groups, “it acts as a bond among peoples of different cultures and thus contributes to the peace of humankind” (http://ictmusic.org/). It is officially represented in over 120 countries and regions.
For me, ICTM has always been a very welcoming organisation, filled with intelligent, helpful, and inspirational people. It has helped me and my institute immeasurably in establishing and maintaining international contacts that have been mutually productive over many years.
My interest in the history of this wonderful organisation helped lead to the superb international collaboration that resulted in the book launched in Lisbon. It has been a great honour and pleasure for me to work with Svanibor and Naila, two people who share the same passion about the council that I do. There could be no better collaborators.
While this book has little to say specifically about Papua New Guinea, it has much to say about the potential contribution of this country to international relations.
With dedication and commitment, anything is possible.
Celebrating the International Council for Traditional Music can be purchased or downloaded for free at: https://knjigarna.uni-lj.si/en-US/product/celebrating-the-international-council-for-traditional-music:-reflections/1003016.

  • Prof Don Niles, PhD, OL, is director of the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, a national cultural institution of the National Cultural Commission, under the Ministry for Tourism, Arts and Culture.