Suva braces for 10-day festival of arts and dances

Samisoni Pareti
Melanesian life—its arts and dances—will be paraded in Suva for a week when the 3rd Melanesian Arts and Cultural Festival opens in the Fijian capital on October 2 to 11.

This will be the third festival after Honiara. Port Vila hosted the first two festivals in 1998 and 2002.

More than 1000 artisans from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and host Fiji have confirmed their participation.

Organisers are also not ruling out the participation of other indigenous groups from Australia, including the Torres Strait Islands, East Timor and West Papua.

The Suva Melanesian Festival carries the theme “Living Culture, Living Tradition.”

“Guests to the festival will be treated to seeing aged-old craftsmanship, processes and techniques of making masi (tapa), carving, weaving, culinary skills and traditional medicine,” explains a member of the festival organising committee, Mareta Tovata. 

“These artistic and cultural demonstrations will be held throughout the day at Sukuna Park, to showcase the different cultures.

Sukuna Park will also host the daily lunch time cultural entertainment.

In downtown Suva, the park is one of several waterfront venues for the festival. The across-the-road Suva Civic Centre will host the art and craft exhibition.

Melanesian artifacts will be on sale at the adjacent Civic Centre car park. Organisers hope to erect five grass huts there for each of the participating nation and turn it into a Melanesian Festival Village.

Explains Tovata: “Both the exhibition and Festival Village will be opened late each night to coincide with the evening performances. 

“The Civic Centre car park will be the venue of the evening performances.

“The themes for these performances are  traditional, culture & fashion, contemporary, musical, and unique cultural practices.”

October 10, the second final day of the festival, will be Fiji Day, the anniversary of the nation’s independence from Britain in 1970, and to reflect this, visiting artisans will be guests of their host country at the celebrations.

Organisers are also planning school visits for visitors to allow artists “to share their culture with the children of Fiji”.

Some schools around the capital will also be used to accommodate the artisans, freeing up the limited hotel rooms in the capital for visitors who want to be part of this once in every four years cultural bonanza.

A highlight of these cultural festivals will be the opening and closing ceremonies as the host is challenged to showcase the finest of its arts and dances.

Stepping up to the mark, Tovata and her committee are working on a spectacular programme they hope will be the talk of many festivals to come.

Recruited to do the magic is Laisiasa Veikoso, currently head of music at the Fiji Institute of Technology.

“Laisiasa has travelled worldwide with the BYU (Brigham Young University) student choirs and symphonic bands.

“He has about 10 years classroom experience and was head of department music at LDS (Mormon Church) Technical College.

“He has also been involved with the African, Caribbean and Pacific Summit opening held in Fiji in 2002, the South Pacific Games choir, the Eco-Challenge opening and was part of the Fiji Delegation to the South Pacific Festival of Arts in Palau,” Tovata said.

With the exception of the opening and closing ceremonies which will be held at the Post Fiji Stadium, near the campus of the University of the South Pacific, all activities of the festival from art exhibition, music concerts, handicraft sales to cultural performances will be concentrated on Suva’s waterfront.

Organisers say they want to allow as many people as possible to visit and enjoy the festival which is why they are not charging any gate fees.

Said Tovata: “It is imperative for the organisers that everyone is included and has equal opportunity to be part of their own cultural festival.

“As part of this vision, the organisers do not want money to restrict whole families from celebrating their inherited traditions.” 

The Fiji Government is footing the bill although the organising committee is scouting for companies to sponsor some of the activities.

Tovata said the idea of a Melanesian Festival was taken by a meeting of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) in 1995 with the objective to “preserve, protect and promote indigenous Melanesian cultures and for Melanesian countries to look to each other for support in maintaining and promoting their traditions and culture.”