Pageant contestant keen to preserve culture

MISS PNG Pacific Islands Pageant contestant Hannah Mel Rose Tabara says she is passionate about the preservation of PNG culture through the creative arts.
“My love for the creative arts and PNG cultures inspired me to strive for the preservation of PNG cultures through the creative arts, in the hope creative arts can be taught in schools to children as young as those in kindergarten,” she said.
Tabara, Miss Italpreziosi 2021, recently completed her five-year studies in the school of humanities and social sciences with a bachelor of arts degree, majoring in creative arts and design and in anthropology and sociology from the University of Papua New Guinea.
Her father is from Northern and mother from Malaita in the Solomon Islands.
Tabara was raised in Mt Hagen, Western Highlands by her missionary parents and credits her interest in PNG history, cultures and traditional knowledge to where she was born and raised.
“In today’s society, due to external influences, the capacity to maintain our cultural heritage is narrowed.
“The desire to maintain a status quo grows while the need to transfer history, cultural skills and traditional knowledge to the younger generation is slowly diminishing,” she said.