Vanuatu Cultural Centre

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The Vanuatu Cultural Centre

The Vanuatu Cultural Centre (in Bislama Vanuatu Kaljoral Senta[1] or "VKS"), founded in 1959,[2] is the national cultural centre of Vanuatu. It is located in Port Vila.[3] Since 2007, its director is Marcellin Abong.[4]

The institution

Describing itself as "an organisation that works to record and promote the diverse cultures" of Vanuatu, the Vanuatu Cultural Centre fullfill the role a national body for the preservation, the protection and the promotion of the different aspects of the culture of the archipelago. The Vanuatu Cultural Centre is an umbrella organization which includes :

  • The National Film and Sound Unit
  • The Vanuatu Cultural and Historical Site Survey
  • The National Archives
  • The National Library
  • The Public Library
  • The Fielworkers's Unit
  • The Tafea Cultural Centre (Lenakel, Tanna)
  • The Malekula Cultural Centre
  • VKS E-Press

Its aim is to record and promote the traditional indigenous cultures of Vanuatu in their various aspects - from sand drawing to music, land diving, other "customary practices" and "indigenous knowledge"-, but also the country's "contemporary arts and music".[5]

Among its projects is the Oral Traditions Collection Project, started in 1976, which has been described as "without doubt, the Pacific's most successful grassroots cultural documentation program".[6]

The Centre produces radio programmes and videos aimed at cultural promotion, preservation or revival. As of 1996, the Centre's collection contained "approximately 2500 hours of audio tape, 2300 hours of video tape, twenty-three hours of 16-millimetre film footage, thirty hours of 8-millimetre film footage, 3000 early (up to 1950s) black-and-white photographs, and around 4000 colour slides, colour negatives and black-and-white negatives". Access to some of this material is restricted, being tabu. Some material may be accessed only by men, some only by women, and some only by members of particular indigenous cultural groups.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Rev.John Williams artifacts showcased in Canada", Vanuatu Daily Post, February 11, 2010
  2. ↑ International Directory of Performing Arts Collections and Institutions
  3. ↑ International Directory of Performing Arts Collections and Institutions
  4. ↑ "Marcellin Abong".
  5. ↑ Vanuatu Cultural Centre website
  6. ↑ K. Huffman, op.cit.
  7. ↑ K. Huffman, op.cit.

External links

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