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By: Anshoo Mala Chandra Department of Information Q&A WITH MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, NATIONAL HERITAGE, CULTURE AND ARTS, YOUTH AND SPORTS, LOCAL GOVT & EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS MR FILIPE BOLE ON FIJI’S WAY FORWARD TO PRESERVING OUR NATIONS CULTURES Q: Minister, sir what has your experience been like to the 10th Pacific Festival of Arts this year? A: Its nice to be back and to give you some ideas about the 10th Pacific Festival of Arts, it took place in Pagopago. It is a concentrated piece of show, featuring some of the main features of cultures, the indigenous cultures in the Pacific in the performing arts and in fine arts. In fact it is a concentrated pieces of art as there are 27 countries that take part in that and through the last two weeks there have been people from the Pacific Countries who have been showing various aspects of their culture. Because in two weeks you get the opportunity to go through the whole culture and you absorb what you can but you will see the differences and the similarities, the Polynesian nature of the Polynesian groups and Melanesians and the Micronesians, basically the cultures are the Island cultures and their meke’s and performing arts show that their lives have been one of trying to survive in a fairly hostile context fighting the elements, the sea, the hurricanes. In most cases they come out very successful in their efforts. Q: What are some measures in which culture can be revived and continually practised? A: I came back and after a week, a lot of ideas came to mind we need not wait until the next four years. We could have our own competition here in Fiji. And I think a lot of countries have their own competitions and they take the best to these cultures. Well that is the first part when the delegation comes back, I have already spoken to the delegation in Pagopago but what we have to do is organise our own local competitions here in Fiji because culture is a living thing you can’t just do it for one year and than leave it for four years than pick it up at end of the four years and hope to keep your culture. That is truistic. It is not aimed at preserving and sustaining it; you can sustain the culture if you practice it. Without practising it disappears in doing that with that in view there was another thing that came to my mind. In addition, to having our local own competitions the people who practise these arts must get something out of it right. Their interests are kept only when at the end of it they can see something coming back to them for example the weavers of baskets, hats and mats they must have a market you know which is the end place where they will take their products to sell. At the festival in Pagopago the little Fijian basket was selling at US$60 there were all sorts of things they were selling from various islands. They were all sold at US dollars and people were fetching very good prices. So when we begin to preserve our culture by doing what we think ought to be preserved there must be an earning view for those people who take part in it and the earning view is the products that they make should be commercialised so that they can get some commercial benefits out of it. I think when the delegation come back we will get on to it and this does not have to be confined because of the nature of our population here. Does not have to be confined to the indigenous cultures you know because we have different cultures here in Fiji, it is Indians, Fijians, Chinese and we have other cultures in Fiji. Our competition here can also be quite intense because of the varieties and the differences of the cultures, it could be very interesting and it is something we can do yearly, Q:Will plans be implemented to inculcate the preservation of cultures within the various educational institutes A: The other thing is to encourage these in schools where we are that way and we are moving very quickly on this front because we have already discussed and I am already bringing it to my own staff meeting because this Ministry includes natural heritage, culture, education, youth and sports, we moving into area of looking at the education system and establishing comprehensive secondary education system where we do not only the academic subjects but we also have the vocational sections where they can do all these things and need not do all the technical subjects they can do sports, they can do various cultural stuffs and those can lead to cultural activities and cultural industry later on. Culture into the school into the adult population into the nation and we do every year. That is the only we can preserve our own culture and that is the best way. Well weaving is only one part of it, they do mats, fans, belts and all sorts of things, masi making and those fetch good prices in the markets and our efforts should be directed towards making those benefits those people who tale part in it. You see this is a change; it is fact a big change into how people look at what they do. Fijians spend hours of hours in trying to prepare a meke at the end of it when they present their meke they know it is for free they don’t get anything out of it. The only thing they get out of that is the pleasure of performing it beyond that and to compensate for the time, the energy and the effort they have spent they get nothing more. It is a shifting thinking amongst the Fijians if they do something they have to get something out of it. ------------- |
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