Source: The National

People gathered at the Divine Word University in Madang last week to discuss the importance of restoring Pacific identity.

The gathering coincided with a celebration dance, that signified a protest against western influence of exploiting land and sea resources in the Pacific. .

In attendance were artists, musicians, chiefs, academics, clergy, activists, youth and civil society representatives.

Spokesperson Rev Francois Pihaatae said the dance was a narrative of decades of exiles, expulsion, persecution and pogrom with the first colonisation of our “sea of islands” to where we are today

He said it was a celebration in protest against the dominant narrative that development means selling or exploiting of Pacific land and sea for the riches within.

“It is about adopting universalist ideals, it is about endless growth in which people and cultures are nothing less than commodities; and it is about not having moral limits to what we can do,” Pihaatae said.

“We live in the world of the faceless empire. We see, think and construct our realities with the frames and lenses of the alternative.”

Bismark Ramu Group co-ordinator John Chitoa said the celebrations of this unique Pacific gathering centred on reclaiming the Wansolwara: one people, one sea.

Chitoa said the Wansolwara was sacred because it contained the memory of our grandparents and tells the story about ourselves.

“We will not be portrayed or perceived as victims of the empire(s) or alternative influences, either by ourselves or by others

“We will affirm who we are and will celebrate it, even in our dark, fair or brown skins, and in our perfect imperfections.

“We will frame our language, create and interpret our art, our music, our dance, our poetry, our symbols and our rituals to tell and proclaim to us and others who we are and our place in this universe,” he said.