Records vital for young people: Official

Constitutional and Law Reform Commission delegation ushered by Central’s Gaire village dancers at the start of the custom recording project for Rigo district at Kwikila Station in Rigo, Central on Monday. – Picture supplied

THE exercise of recording customs undertaken by the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission (CLRC) can help young people reconnect with their customs, culture and traditions, an official says.
Rigo district’s chief executive Koru Abe told the CLRC team this when welcoming them at Kwikila station, at Rigo in Central on Monday.
The CLRC team comprised commissioner Martha Kokiva, secretary Dr Mange Matui and deputy secretary Dorothy Mimiko-Kesenga, who were in Rigo for the start of the “underlying law custom” recording project. “This exercise will leave a legacy behind for our children,” he said.
Abe said the project was an important starting point to explore old customary laws and practices and embrace those that were workable today for incorporation into the legal system, especially village courts.
Mimiko-Kesenga said CLRC would be recording customs of 11 different language groups in Rigo this week before moving into other districts of Central and PNG.
She added that the exercise was a massive long-term project that would benefit the whole country and therefore needed support from provincial and district administrations.
Kokiva highlighted the importance of the exercise in protecting and preserving the customs, traditional rules and practices, and PNG’s identity in the world against globalisation and modernisation.
She added that the underlying law custom recording project was a mandate of CLRC, which could be traced back to Independence 1975 and particularly when the founding fathers called for PNG to be built on PNG ways.