Group launches festival’s stellite venue

THE National Cultural Commission (NCC) has launched a regional satellite venue in Mt Hagen in preparation for the 5th Melanesian Festival of Arts and Culture (MFAC) in the country.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Boka Kondra said at the launching that the arts and culture festival was one of the arenas on which the Melanesian people, including Fijians, New Caledonians, Solomon Islanders and Ni Vanuatu people, would come to participate in cultural and social activities that would be organised.
“It is my pleasure to be here in Mt Hagen to officially launch the 5th Melanesian Festival of Arts and Culture, which will be hosted from 28th June -11th to July, 2014 in PNG,” Kondra said.
He said Timor Leste, Melanesians of Indonesia, including West Papua, and the Torres Strait Islands may participate and showcase their diverse cultural, which would enable the people to interact and exchange ideas as Melanesians.
Kondra said sharing aspirations and sentiments as Melanesian brothers and sisters in the central location of Port Moresby would be seen as restrictive and would not fully serve the objective of the MSG at its fullest.
He said it would be fitting that they extend this participation to other centres such as the satellite venues representing the four regions of their beautiful country.
He said Mt Hagen would be one of the venues for the 5th Melanesian Festival of Arts or Culture to showcase the highlands cultural heritage to be shared with other Melanesians participating there.
“Our other regional satellite venues selected for this festival are Alotau in the Milne Bay, Kokopo in East New Britain and Wewak in East Sepik,” he said.
Kondra appreciated people in those satellite centres for taking the onus to accept and host the festival for their Melanesian brothers and sisters to showcase their cultures.
He said presence and participation of the Melanesian counterparts would strengthen economic and regional corporations.
“I thank the Western Highlands Deputy Administrator, the provincial advisor for commerce, tourism and arts and culture officers from the provincial administration and governor’s office who are at hand to assure me ownership to host the festival,” Kondra said.