Tourism minister urges NCC members to start project

TOURISM, Arts and Culture Minister Isi Henry Leonard has urged members of the National Cultural Commission (NCC) policy committee to start working on the traditional knowledge and cultural expression project.
The team is made up of NCC executives, including executive director Steven Kilanda.
Leonard said diverting the art industry away from the social sector into the economic sector could turn it into a big money-making industry.
“The tourism, art and culture industry can create the much-needed foreign currency and be one of the biggest employers of our people by using our culture to generate revenue the,” he said.
“This is the mindset we must have.
“I urge the NCC to immediately commence work into the traditional knowledge and cultural expression theme of the policy.” Chief policy consultant Dr Michael Unagi said the arts and culture industry was a renewable resource that could generate income to sustain the non-renewable sector.
“The policy definition comes from Unesco,” he said.
“Therefore, I hope that we can collaborate further for the purposes of this agenda.”
Leonard said that music and sacred sites in the country were among the areas of conservation and business interests.
“We need to identify our scared sites and, old songs sung in native languages and register them to preserve our languages and history,” he said.
“We have signed memoranda of understanding with Milne Bay, West New Britain, Enga, Madang and Central for our programmes and activities through the policy.
“We look forward to including more provinces.”