Festival returns to Madang campus

The National Weekender

By KEVIN PAMBA
IF you are heading to Madang town around Saturday, Aug 17 you are in for a feast of Papua New Guinea indigenous cultural body decoration, costumes, singing and dancing all in the one arena.
The students of Divine Word University will present the PNG cultural treat to the public during the cultural day of the university, which makes a return after a year of absence. The day was aborted last August in respect of a student who passed away in the days leading up to the event. This was in keeping with the indigenous cultural ways of not having celebratory events and festivals during the time of mourning.
Madang’s must-see cultural event makes a return under the theme “How wonderful it, how pleasant for God’s people to embrace and showcase our diverse cultures” which is derived from the university’s theme for the year.
The students led by the Students Representative Council (SRC) are preparing for the event in earnest to show case their indigenous cultural heritage.
As usual, parents and guardians are expected to turn up at the campus, bringing the traditional costumes and prepare their children to participate in the festival. The parents and guardians often do a great job of ‘training’ their children with the dance routines and singing during the practice sessions in the few evenings leading up to the main event.
The 22 provinces of PNG (including the Autonomous Region of Bougainville) are represented in the student population and it is expected that a wide array of cultures will be on show on the day.
The 2019 cultural day will be hosted by the SRC at the usual venue – the SVD field (formerly YC field) beside the main campus. The event begins with a parade of male and female representatives of each cultural group dressed in their traditional regalia on the evening of Friday, Aug 16 in the SVD Memorial Auditorium. The public is welcomed for both the parade evening and the actual cultural day singing and dancing the next day.
l Dr Kevin Pamba PhD is based at Divine Word University, Madang.