Pacific Artists Gather
p. 17 · Read in the full issue
A celebration of island culture.
By Carson Creagh
WITH THE sth Festival of Pacific Arts due to open to the public on August 14, the northern Queens land city of Townsville is experiencing an unprecedented influx of island artists, performers and exponents of Pacific traditions.
To the islands and Aboriginal artists who will be taking part, the festival is a celebration of the vitality of their cultures and traditions, and of their kinships in a region that is only now discovering its strength in the face of disintegrating cul tures elsewhere in the world.
And to the people of Townsville, the festival means a welcome addition to the area’s tourism and visitor revenue. Two thousand performers and perhaps 20,000 visitors will take part in the fortnight-long festival.
This year’s festival will have a strong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander in put, explains festival director Ms Pat Turner. “The objective of the festival is to promote the maintenance of indigenous cultures in the Pacific region,” she says.
“We aim to maximise cultural exchange between our indigenous people and those from participating nations. Another aim is to promote a greater understanding among non-indigenous peoples about in digenous cultures.” To this end delegates from the 15 participating countries and territories Australia (with 300 partici pants so far), American Samoa (60), Easter Island (50), French Polynesia (120), Guam (40), Hawaii (100), New Caledonia (100), Niue (40), Papua New Guinea (200), To kelau (100), Wallis and Futuna (43), West
ern Samoa (60), Vanuatu (45), Northern Marianas (40) and Cook Islands (40) will engage in joint activities that explore the commonalities and differences be tween their traditions. As well, the Fed erated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Pitcairn, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu will-be sending an as yet un specified number of artists.
Joint artistic director Jimmy Little, one of Australia’s best known Aboriginal en tertainers, says that “assisting in the pro gramming of the cultural format into an entertaining and informative program is a very real and important objective for me.
It is almost automatic that those who at tend the festival will leave with more knowledge and awareness that people from all walks of life are part of the family of humanity.”
Pat Turner expands the philosophy of cultural sharing: “It is important to me, as one of the indigenous people hosting this festival, to have a high-level involvement in [its] planning and management.
“For that reason we have a majority of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders on the board of directors, and our local ad visory committee is composed of Aborigi nal and Torres Strait Island representatives.”
Although nominations for participa tion in the sth Festival of Pacific Arts closed on March 15, enquiries are still wel come, and anyone interested in attending or taking part in the festival should con tact festival staff at PO Box 720, Towns ville Qld 4810; phone (077) 21 2488. □