In the second week of August just under 2000 multilingual Melanesians, Polynesians and Micronesians from 25 Pacific nations, along with 300 Aboriginal and Islander delegates, converged on Townsville, named after Kanak labour trader Robert Towns. At no cost to the onlooker, the largest cultural celebration ever held here commenced. At the closing ceremony, ten days later, about 5000 were in attendance. This fifth, four yearly peripatetic and international Pacific Festival of Arts included four visual arts and artifacts exhibitions, three days of film and video screenings, a three day cultural forum, a crafts village housing demonstration and sale of pacific visual arts and artifacts, and virtually ten hours per day for ten days of dance, song, chanting, drumming, musicianship, theatre and ceremony, including a sacred Tahitian firewalk in which about 300 audience members participated. Presentations involved twelve separate venues in and around Townsville.
In case events might be mistaken for exotic entertainments commodified for the consumer, there was no charge at any venue. Despite evidence of long standing European missionary and commercial influence, many events openly celebrated traditional tribal and community identity and life style, the value of spontaneous celebration as an essential part of daily life, and the role of art as an expression of communal identity for all, rather than the idiosyncrasy of an elite. Some events confirmed the spiritual and supernatural as a fact of life along with the value of diverse traditional ways of accessing these realms. Many presentations confirmed the efficacy of material simplicity, simple technologies, sophisticated hand skills and informed familiarity with natural materials and phenomena in meeting genuine human needs. Both contemporary and traditional arts were celebrated.
In addition many events positively celebrated
Pacific Festival of Arts, Townsville, August 1988.
