Politics in the Pacific: Indigenous Australian participation at the Festival of Pacific Arts

[Extract] Festival of Pacific Arts performances present culture as spectacle but such performances are also a poetic means of forging alliances and asserting political claims. Festivals allow people to retrieve traditions so as to make sense of the present and look to the future. The Festival of Pacific Arts is a key site for the celebration of nation-state identities in the Pacific but it is also a spectacular opportunity for Pacific peoples to assert political claims and to forge cross-cutting ties and develop relationships that transcend state boundaries. Indigenous Australians (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples) have participated at every Festival of Pacific Arts that has been held since the inaugural festival in Fiji in 1972. Because participation in the Festival is state funded and monitored, Indigenous Australians attend as cultural diplomats of the Australian nation-state. Nevertheless, the Festival provides a fruitful means for them to pursue social and political ties and forge alliances at the grass-roots level.

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The Festival of Pacific Arts: Celebrating over 40 years of cultural heritage

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978-982-01-0950-6

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