PIC Board Member Rita Pangelinan Nauta Reflects on FestPAC 2024
Celebrating & Preserving Pasifika Stories & Storytelling
The 13th FestPac’s theme, Regenerating Oceania, reflects this compelling opportunity that we have as indigenous people of 21st century Pasifika. There is an alignment across our Blue Continent and an opportunity to leverage technology for preservation of our islander centered stories and inspire the transmission of our traditional cultures and oral histories of lived experiences by our elders through digital storytelling. Upon reflecting on my FestPAC experiences, it really brought to mind the importance of PIC’s purpose and mission and to whom we serve!
This resonated even more so while watching the festival’s film program spearheaded by PIC. The archival film Memories from the 6th Festival of Pacific Arts was actually done by Hawaiian high school students from Kamehameha Schools documenting their experience at the 1992 festival in the Cook Islands. In the film, delegates that were interviewed spoke about the distinction and range of Pasifika arts and culture spanning across generations ranging from traditional to contemporary artisans and practitioners. That was back in 1992! Here we are in the 21st century, and for the first time in the history of humankind, there are four to five generations in work spaces and organizations.
This is the natural evolution of our Pasifika storytelling cultures that we share and celebrate across Oceania. This evolution also presents the need to make a concerted effort to incite Pasifika’s visual and digital storytellers to document the traditional cultures of our islands through the lenses of our elders that have served as the inheritors and teachers of our enduring indigenous cultural heritage. There is a sense of urgency in preserving and promoting the traditional aspects as many of our practitioners have passed on.
Here in Guam, we are in the midst of commemorating and celebrating the 80th anniversary of our war survivors being liberated from enemy occupation. Many of our elders are World War II survivors caught in a war not of their making. Their strength and resilience, their knowledge of the earth, sea and sky and working together to restore harmony and peace are compelling stories that must be preserved for future generations. This living history will soon cease.
Guam Hale at the FestPAC 2024 Villages
These stories can provide a better understanding of the legacy of our cultural traditions across generations, and embolden the creative spirit of younger generations to infuse contemporary aspects into cultural presentations and celebrations such as FestPac - dubbed by many as the largest Pasifika stage ever! From documenting our traditional cultures, stories of and by elders of their lived experiences, and the evolution of Pasifika arts and culture over time - these stories digitally preserved and shared - will benefit future generations and FestPac’s to come! Let us continue celebrating and cultivating connections to past, present and future through our stories and the art of storytelling!
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