Across the cultural divide
p. 47 · Read in the full issue
I NOT MANY people have heard of I Vaka Moana. Hopefully that will change in the next couple of years, for it could do wonders for bringing together the peoples scattered all over the Pacific and creating a sense of regional identity that has long been lacking.
It could also put the Pacific and its island states on the world map in a way that will hasten the economic development they so desperately need.
These are ambitious aims and whether they come about will depend to a large degree on whether Vaka Moana can capture the imagination of people in the region and attract the necessary backing yes, that means money from further afield.
To explain. Few people may know it, but since 1988 we have been living in a period the United Nations has
I dubbed the “World Decade for Cultural Development”. The lUN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation I (UNESCO) was charged with implementing a program over the I following 10 years that would advance the economic, social and I cultural development of member countries and their regions.
It sparked a major and fascinating European/Asian program, I dominated by scientific research but funded largely by European I and Japanese television companies, known as “The Integral I Study of the Silk Roads”, and a handful of other projects around I the world. But the decade was well under way before anybody I got around even to thinking about doing anything in the Pacific I which, after all, is by far the world’s largest ocean and contains a variety of island states that need “development” as much as any on this earth.
Then, last year, Professor Tony Hooper, of Auckland University, came up with an idea for a regional project using the Pacific Ocean as an integrating theme. The ocean was seen as the generative source of resources throughout the region and the common link between its islands and their people.
Vaka (a common word for canoe throughout the region, and in many Pacific languages also denoting a social group linked by common descent and migration) Moana (understood all over the Pacific to mean ocean) the two words together translated as “The Ocean Roads”, was chosen as the title of the project.
A number of goals were nominated, including • Reinforcing links between Pacific peoples through better understanding of their common historical links and dependance on the ocean; and Promoting traditional and scientific knowledge of the sea and its resources, and their conservation.
The UNESCO conference in Paris in October, 1991 approved the project and the world body has come up with 5U535,000 to fund detailed planning. A number of countries, including New Zealand, Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Western Samoa, Niue, the Solomon Islands, Tokelau and France, have supported it in principle.
But it remains to be seen where it goes from here.
Former Foreign Minister Russell Marshall, who is chairman of the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO and one of this country s most ardent advocates of Pacific co-operation, has been pushing the idea along.
He sees it as a wonderful opportunity to help Pacific island
nations recognise their common heritage and interests and to present the region to an outside world that still knows little of the Pacific and its peoples.
But he says to do anything worthwhile is going to take money, more money than govern ments, whose aid budgets are increasingly under pressure, are likely to be able to provide.
“Sadly,” he says, “there is no gravy train to ride on. The major funding will need to come from the private sector, and largely from sources on the Pacific Rim and further afield.”
He has his eye on various foundations in Europe and Japan, and is canvassing the embassies in Wellington for advice as to how best to tap this source. He also thinks the Silk Roads example
could interest regional television organisations.
A UNESCO Asia-Pacific regional conference in Canberra this month will afford an opportunity to discuss the issue and he plans to convene an initial Vaka Moana planning meeting in Apia, to which Culture Ministers or their representatives will be invited, early next year.
He wants the widest possible involvement in the project, including non-independent states like Easter Island, Guam and the French Pacific territories, the South Pacific Commission, the Forum Secretariat and the University of the South Pacific.
Professor Hooper has produced a three-part outline of his ideas for the project • Studies of the region’s linguistics, archeology and biological
anthropology;
• People exchanges to discuss genealogies and traditions and re enactment of canoe voyages, as was done for the October Festival of South Pacific Arts; and • An economic development component focussed on marine resources, tourism and conversation.
Marshall says the precise nature of what might be included is wide open but some lasting economic development benefit is fundamental to the success of the whole project.
“If, for instance, we can find some funding which enables people to have a realistic look at the geological undersea I resources of the region and how they could be used to help the peoples of the Pacific, that would be of incredible potential benefit.”
He says with the Pacific states becoming increasingly subject to developed country influences in the form of the video explosion, for example, the time is right to focus on the traditional and history of the region and to recognise the island peoples’ cultural coherence.
He sees himself as merely “baby sitting” the proposal in its early stages and wants it taken over by a Pacific islander to give it regional and international credence.
It is a grand idea, perhaps, but anyone who loves the Pacific would want to see it brought to fruition. It would be a pity if a golden opportunity to bring the Pacific island peoples closer together and to trumpet the region abroad failed for lack of interest or money.