Cultural mapping starts in Gulf

VILLAGE chief Putu Enga has thanked the National Cultural Council (NCC) for choosing the Tauri- Lakekamu local level government area in Gulf province as the pilot area for a cultural mapping project.
Mr Enga assured the research teams, which started the project on Nov 27, that they had the full support of the locals.
The National Government had allocated K500,000 for the five-year cultural mapping project.
The aim of the project is to capture the identity of a community or area in all of its manifestations which encourages the appreciations of culture as holistic.
It would be extended to other regions in the country at later dates.
The project is designed to determine the existence and current status of the diverse tangible and intangible cultural heritages of our indigenous people and foster the protection, maintenance, continuity, development and promotion of these as a source of intangible and material wealth and the positive contribution they can make to sustain development. 
Speaking during the launch at Malalaua, NCC executive director Dr Jacob Simet said our traditional culture was slowly dying out because of Western influences on our people who have already grasped it.
“This forms a means of maximising the creative and commercial potential of a community by developing lateral thinking and knowledge blending between the different aspects of culture.
“It is distinguished from other processes which record or represents culture because it aims to recognise, celebrate and support culture and its diversity by mapping culture and its aspirations within the community being mapped,” Dr Simet said.
A total of six research teams consists of 18 potential researchers have already been dispatched into nine wards in the district to carry out actual collection of data or information to be kept in the commission’s archives.