Cultural institutions under valued

Tione Chinula



Are we taking our culture too much for granted? One Pacific cultural specialist believes that in terms of policy and sustainable development, culture is not taken seriously enough in the Pacific.
“Because islanders are busy “living” culture, many leaders do not see it as something to be studied, or enshrined in and supported through policy or funding,” says Katerina Teaiwa, Pacific Studies Convener at the Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific.
“Cultural institutions such as centres, museums and galleries, for example, aren’t on the priority list, and degrees in culturally related disciplines are undervalued.”
Dr Teaiwa spoke at a regional workshop held at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s headquarters in Noumea, New Caledonia in March.
The workshop, which she co-facilitated, provided guidelines for the process of cultural mapping, planning and policy development.
Co-facilitator Colin Mercer, an international expert in cultural mapping and planning for the cultural and creative sector, said cultural mapping was about discovering an area’s indigenous resource base for the purposes of social, economic and cultural development.
“In Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australasia and Europe, cultural mapping and planning have enabled people to harness and develop their creative resources and content in music, visual arts, design, literature, dance, performing arts, film, radio and television, and heritage. This has enabled the creation of new jobs, new forms of expression, and new senses of self, place and identity.”
This has been particularly important in the context of the globalisation of new media platforms such as the Internet and mobile telephones, he says.
New digital media offer new possibilities for creating, distributing and consuming new and distinctive cultural products and experiences.
“[These media] have greatly enhanced access to cultural products and experiences, and enabled new forms of transnational creativity across borders. Witness the success of “world music” for example, and its importance for both employment and creative expression to Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.”
New digital media create an immense potential for the Pacific region if the right policy settings to support and sustain the cultural and creative sector are put in place, says Mercer.
“This is what cultural mapping and planning should aim for. The creative economy is one of the fastest growing economic sectors globally and it is important to understand its nature and momentum for the Pacific region in order to confidently join it with its own distinctive cultural and creative resources.”
Dr Teaiwa says that to make mapping, planning and policy work effectively, it is necessary for an in-depth discussion to take place on what culture is and what the stakes are in promoting, safeguarding and harnessing culture for sustainable development.
Workshop participants were encouraged to support each other by drawing on common knowledge and resources. They took part in several exercises to help them imagine and develop the cultural mapping and planning process.
“One activity involved imagining how you would go about creating a national conversation on culture, how you would create a rationale for this, and what strategies you would use to go about consulting with communities and then sharing your findings,” says Dr Teaiwa.
“This was followed by a more detailed activity where participants imagined a specific cultural project and then created a list of all the key stakeholders for that project.”
Another exercise involved understanding how qualitative and quantitative data can be used to create meaningful indicators in support of development policy.
“For example, combining the number of cultural producers, commodities and programmes, and the amount of funding with cultural values (i.e. people’s opinions, ideas and customs with regard to cultural practices or ideas), can be translated into indicators that are evaluative and not just descriptive,” she says.
The social, cultural and economic well being of a community could be measured over time by combining both quantitative and qualitative cultural information.
 Structuring the cultural sector
The workshop was the first step in an important regional project that aims to enhance human development efforts in the Pacific by structuring and strengthening the culture sector.
The 713,474 euro project is funded by the European Union and will be implemented by SPC, with partner organisations and member countries over the next two-and-a-half years.
The workshop was the initial step in the first of four distinct but related components targeted by the project. The second component of the project focuses on promoting the region’s cultural industries. SPC will work with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat on this.
Component three deals with preserving cultural heritage, and will focus on mapping threatened cultural heritage areas in six countries: Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Guinea (Bougainville), Tuvalu and Vanuatu. This exercise will be coordinated by SPC and the Pacific Islands Museum Association. 
The last component relates to establishing inter-regional partnerships through cultural exchanges between Pacific and Caribbean heritage institutions.

• For more information please contact Elise Huffer, SPC Human Development Adviser (Culture), by phone: +679 3379 387 or e-mail: eliseh@spc.int.