Digaso festival on hold due to Covid-19, says organiser

A CULTURAL festival which began 10 years ago will not be held this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, an organiser says.
Kutubu Kundu and Digaso festival organiser Saina Jeffrey Philyara said they would instead channel resources to building the Kutubu Foe Cultural Resource Centre at Daga village, Pimaga.
“After discussions with the PNG Tourism Promotion Authority, the festival steering team decided not to go ahead with the festival this year but to focus on the construction of the Kutubu Foe centre at Daga” she said.
Since the inception of the festival in 2011 through the Kutubu Foe Culture Society, building a cultural resource centre had been one of its goals. Philyara said the Covid-19 situation “created an opportunity for us to establish the resource centre which will benefit the people of Kutubu”.
The resource centre will facilitate cultural resource management, development, and education for young people.
“The resource centre will be creating opportunities to learn about the Kutubu languages, stories behind their different singsings, costumes, arts, crafts, kundu drums, face paintings, long houses, women’s houses and the translation of these knowledge to pidgin and English,” she said.
“The project targets youths and children to uphold their cultural heritage.”