Fern Ridge (Safla Rama) Digest

Waigani Primary School Graduation Day 2012 @ UPNG Drill Hall This week is the last week of school in this academic year. It is time for schools to have their end of the year close up events such as graduations, speech days, and presentations. It is a time of celebration as well as a time of evaluations of the year it has been. For our children the year would have made them proud of their achievements, growth, and development as a person, student, citizen, or role model to others. For other students the year could have been a difficult one for whatever reasons. It is time to reflect on that before going for holidays.    Many students will leave their current schools at the end of this year. Others will move from one grade up to the next grade. Some students will move from one province to another. Whatever the move is in the next year this year must come to a good end with students remembering all their achievements this year. It’s a good idea to go back ...

Tinpis Run is another PNG feature film In my presentation at the symposium on harnessing the arts and culture in development I also shared my experiences as a writer, academic, publisher, and advocate for the development of arts and culture in the country. In the focus of my talk I spoke about using media technologies to help us promote our arts and culture. Papua New Guineans have more access to media technologies than twenty years ago. It amazes me how slow we are to take advantage of media technologies to advance our cause. Today it is easier to take beautiful photographs of people and landscapes using our mobile phones and digital cameras. We upload these photographs on our Facebook and blog pages with ease and comfort. In so doing we share moments that are identifiable among all people. One of the most useful media technologies we need to use more to promote our cultures and arts is the YOUTUBE. We can use digital technologies of packaging culture and arts that...

With pioneer PNG Feature Filmmaker Mr. Albert Toro 2012 I taught a course in Pacific literature and cultural production in the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawaii in 2011. One of the units in the syllabus was on Indigenous Feature Pacific films. The first on my list of films, no doubt, was Albert Toro and Chris Owen’s Tukana: Husait I Asua?   The obvious reason is that Tukana is the first indigenous feature film, setting the standard for other Pacific Islands film makers to follow. It was a pleasure to hear Albert Toro talk about his experience of making the film, how he started, and his passion for the theatre performances. He talked about the technical aspects of film and his concerns that as a filmmaker there was no money and government support in that industry. He asked where he would find trained actors, scriptwriters, camera handlers, and musicians if he were to produce a feature film. In making films everyone works together as ...

Langston Visits the National Museum and Arts Gallery 2012 It is clear the conversations we have about the arts and culture in Papua New Guinea is more than about the administration and policy directions of the government in developing the arts and culture. It is more than about the issues of lack of government support, lack of access to resources, and the struggles of writers, musicians, artists, filmmakers, and artifact makers. The important element in our discussions is about the people who are active as artists, musicians, playwrights, writers, painters, sculpture makers, and the traditional craftsmen. These people are the makers of the arts that depict or represent their cultures. It is easy for people to speak about what to do to develop the arts and culture, but it is difficult to live the life of an artist, struggling to make ends meet to make a sensible living. The discussions in the national symposium on arts and culture in development focused on the th...