Official: Maintenance of cultural identity lacks Government support

The National National

DESPITE 800 tribal groups in PNG, their cultures are eroding and lack of government funding to institutions that help maintain them is one of the reasons causing it chairman of the Farmers and Settlers Association says.
Wilson Thompson said one identifies himself through their cultural and traditional identities and state institutions that help support them have been closed or are not functioning.
“We have our cultures, traditions and Christian values in the opening part of the Constitution, including the National Anthem,” he said.
“However, government commitment and actual support for the cultural sector is dismal and a failure since the 1980s.”
Thompson said the once active National Arts School that dealt with skilled or gifted artists was closed and no one was interested in taking up the study despite such desire among many young artists.
He said some of the issues of concern were:

  • The closure of cultural studies at National Research Institute (NRI);
  • the lack of funding to Institute of PNG Studies (IPNGS) that looked at language and ethnographic studies and also kept the audio archives of important radio or parliament speeches;
  • the non-support to the Skul blo Wokim Piksa and National Film Institute (NFI) that kept photo and film archives from the 1800s;
  • non-funding and support of the National Performing Arts Troupe that combined Raun Raun Theatre (RRT) and the National Theatre Company;
  • the unique RRT building and their office and accommodation complex condemned by the Department of Works, the Fire Service and health authorities. All 21 cultural centres around PNG were closed or destroyed;
  • the National Museum not being supported to do social mapping and genealogy studies;
  • the Cultural Sectors Constitution Park being sub-divided and overdivided that its land is now taken by Vision City and many private sector towards National Development Bank.
  • the International Conferences Centre is taken away and a boulevard runs through with roads crisscrossing. If it wasn’t for foreign funding the museum would not keep its masterpiece and display cataloged and preserved due to temperature issues;
  • the Government Printing Office bypassed for publication needs and some government documents are missing;
  • the National Library and National Archives are struggling to provide services outside Port Moresby. The town library and Hohola library disappeared and National Records land near Somare Foundation may be bulldozed;
  • the old House Assembly land in Port Moresby including sizeable land is not accounted for and the Nambawan Super and OPH Ltd need to tell PNG who is the owner of the land – the National Museum and if so how much rent per annum is to be paid to the Museum or if not what is the equity or shareholding of the National Museum in the high-rise developments there; and,
  • The National Broadcating Corpoation (NBC) sound and music archives is badly managed just as IPNGS and NFI.