PNG set for cultural festival

ABOUT 150 people will showcase Papua New Guinea’s diverse cultures during the seventh Melanesian Art and Cultural Festival in Vanuatu’s Port Vila next month, says the National Cultural Commission (NCC).
NCC executive director Steven Kilanda said in Port Moresby last Thursday during a corporate launch that PNG’s culture was an important tourism product that was unique in the world.
“The NCC is the lead cultural agency in PNG on preserving, promoting and marketing our diverse cultures in our country, but we cannot do it alone, that is why we have asked you to help promote our national identity on this regional platform for Melanesian countries,” he said.
First hosted in 1998 by the Solomon Islands (SI), the festival is held every four years.
The second festival was hosted in Vanuatu in 2002, then New Caledonia, PNG, SI for the second time and Vanuatu again next month.
“It is about time we should give back to culture, in the world, PNG is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world and we need to showcase that, our 10 million-plus people are connected to their culture,” he said.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Isi Henry Leonard said the media in PNG had a responsibility to showcase the importance and economic value of PNGs’ diverse cultures.
“As foreign ideas come into our country, we have exposed ourselves for outside influence, our cultures and customs are important, and eventually our cultures are eroded and even our own identities,” he said.
“A lot of children in the city can’t even speak their own mother tongue, this is the reality.”