Vanuatu Cultural Centre
Encyclopedia
Vanuatu
Vanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...
. It is located in Port Vila
Port Vila
Port Vila is the capital and largest city of Vanuatu. Situated on the south coast of the island of Efate, in Shefa Province, the city population at last was 29,356, an increase of 55% on the previous census result . This suggests a 2007 population of about 40,000 or around 65% of the province's...
. Since 2007, its director is Marcellin Abong.
The institution
Describing itself as "an organisation that works to record and promote the diverse cultures" of Vanuatu, it is an umbrella organisation which includes the National Museum of VanuatuNational Museum of Vanuatu
The National Museum of Vanuatu is located in the Vanuatu Cultural Centre in Port Vila, Vanuatu. It specializes in exhibits relating to the culture and history of this group of islands in the South Pacific....
, the Vanuatu Cultural and Historical Site Survey, the National Library
National Library (Vanuatu)
The National Library is the national library of Vanuatu. Located within the Vanuatu Cultural Centre in Port Vila, it contains about 15,000 books and serves both as a national repository for "rare and special" material, and as a lending library...
and the National Film and Sound Unit. Its aim is to record and promote the traditional indigenous cultures of Vanuatu
Culture of Vanuatu
This article presents an overview of the culture of Vanuatu.-Social system and customs:Vanuatu culture retains a strong diversity through local regional variations and through foreign influence. Vanuatu may be divided into three major cultural regions. In the north, wealth is established by how...
in their various aspects -from sand drawing
Sand drawing
Sand drawing is a ni-Vanuatu artistic and ritual tradition and practice, recognised by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity."Sand drawing" is produced in sand, volcanic ash or clay...
to music, land diving
Land diving
Land diving is a ritual performed by the men of the southern part of Pentecost Island, Vanuatu. The precursor to bungee jumping, men jump off of wooden towers around high, with two tree vines wrapped around the ankles. Land diving is done without any safety equipment...
, other "customary practices" and "indigenous knowledge"-, but also the country's "contemporary arts and music".
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".
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.
See also
- Ralph RegenvanuRalph RegenvanuRalph John Regenvanu is a ni-Vanuatu anthropologist, artist and politician. He has been a Member of Parliament since September 2008, a member of Cabinet for most of the period since December 2010, and was the Director of the Vanuatu National Cultural Council from 1995 until December 2010.He has...
, director of the Centre from 1995 to 2006 - Culture of VanuatuCulture of VanuatuThis article presents an overview of the culture of Vanuatu.-Social system and customs:Vanuatu culture retains a strong diversity through local regional variations and through foreign influence. Vanuatu may be divided into three major cultural regions. In the north, wealth is established by how...
External links
- Official website
- HUFFMAN, Kirk W., "The Fieldworkers of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and their Contribution to the Audiovisual Collections", in BONNEMAISON, Joël, HUFFMAN, Kirk, KAUFMANN, Christian & TRYON, Darrell, Arts of Vanuatu, University of Hawai'i Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0824819569