NMI artists to join largest arts festival in the Pacific

A delegation of close to 100 artists and officials from the Northern Marianas will fly to New Caledonia later this year to participate in the largest arts festival in the Pacific, according to Arts Council Coordinator Cindy Macaranas.

Tight revenues have prompted the CNMI government to trim down the number of delegates to the 8th Festival of Pacific Arts which will be held in New Caledonia from Oct. 23 to Nov. 3, 2000.

According to Ms. Macaranas, delegates to the festival will be hosted in boarding facilities of all New Caledonia public and private schools. Organizers are hoping to install washing machines in boarding facilities for the exclusive use of the delegates.

Daily bus transport will be provided to the delegations for the duration of the arts festival, while vans will be made available to participants for transporting the costumes and instruments they would bring to the venue.

Ms. Macaranas said the Festival of Pacific Arts, an assembly of the region’s rich and diverse cultures and tradition, has never failed to draw huge participation from among countries in the Pacific.

Festival organizers are anticipating participation from the Northern Marianas, Guam, Fiji, Australia, Cook Islands, Palau, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Marshalls, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, New Zealand among others.

In an interview, Ms. Macaranas said islands in the Pacific are on the verge of drastic changes but added that efforts have been intensified to preserve the region’s rich cultures and traditions to pass on to the next generation of Pacific people.

This year’s theme — “Pacific Cultures on the move together — is expected to allow Pacific communities to show their roots and understand the feelings of the younger people amid cultural and artistic diversity.

“We are talking about the heritage handed down to us by our fathers at a time when information is becoming a global commodity and when we are feeling the impact of cultural assumptions that are alien to our own inner beings,” said Festival Director Octave Tonga of New Caledonia in a letter.

Among a variety of goals and objectives, organizers of the 8th Festival of Pacific Arts are hoping to encourage the region’s residents to assert their identities through new communication technology, new economic and social circumstances and new cultural resources.

The 8th Festival of Pacific Arts is hoping to address issues surrounding preservation of the region’s history and heritage by instilling in the minds of the younger people the value of traditions and cultures. (Aldwin R. Fajardo)