Ralph Regenvanu, Director of the Vanuatu National Cultural Council, has been asked by UNESCO to provide advice to their programs in cultural policy as someone designated as an international “expert” in the field (UNESCO is the “United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation”, the arm of the United Nations with responsibility for matters of education, science and culture).
In February, Mr Regenvanu was requested to attend the World Heritage Workshop for the Pacific Island States held at Waitetoko Marae in New Zealand as a resource person. He accompanied the designated Vanuatu representative to that meeting, Mr Douglas Kalotiti, Chairman of the World Heritage and Tourism Committee managing Vanuatu’s first World Heritage nominated site, Chief Roi Mata’s Domain. The result of that meeting, a set of resolutions and recommendations entitled “The Pacific Appeal”, will be presented to the World Heritage Committee meeting at its meeting in Christchurch in June and seeks greater support, recognition and protection for the sites heritage of the Pacific Islands. The World Heritage Centre, which oversees implementation of the World Heritage Convention, is hosted by UNESCO at its headquarters in Paris.
In April, Mr Regenvanu was invited to participate in the UNESCO Expert Meeting “Islands as Crossroads: Cultural Diversities and sustainable development in Small Island Developing States” held in Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles. This meeting was a follow-up meeting (in the specific field of culture) to the 2005 “Mauritius International Meeting to Review Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS)”. The 2005 Mauritius meeting, which was attended by the Hon. Sato Kilman, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and other Vanuatu Government representatives, was also known as “Barbados +10” because it was a 10 year review of the “Barbados Plan of Action” adopted by the United Nations in Barbados in 1994, which was the first time the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) group had met to discuss issues of concern to them. Mr Regenvanu was a member of a six-person “Culture Panel” at the Mauritius meeting which helped shape the “Culture” chapter in the resulting “Mauritius Strategy”. The main objective of the Seychelles meeting this year was to try and identify common areas of concern and policy advocacy in the field of cultural diversity between the three main SIDS regions – the Caribbean, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean - and to advise UNESCO’s activities in the field of promoting cultural diversity for the sustainable development for SIDS. Mr Regenvanu’s presentation concerned the Vanuatu Government’s attempts to raise awareness about the contribution of culture to national development and to “mainstreaming culture” through the program of the “Year of the Traditional Economy”. Other representatives from the Pacific included Professor Matthew Spriggs of the Australian National University (who has undertaken extensive archaeological work in Vanuatu since before independence) and Dr Michael Mel, Head of Expressive Arts at the University of Goroka in PNG.
In May, Mr Regenvanu was invited to participate in the UNESCO Expert Meeting “Towards Mainstreaming Principles of Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue in Policies for Sustainable Development” held in Paris, France, at the UNESCO headquarters. This meeting was held to coincide with the “World Day for Cultural Diversity, Dialogue and Development” proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2003, which was Monday the 21st of May. The meeting brought together about 15 representatives from academic institutions as well as from interregional organisations to make recommendations on how to promote the mainstreaming of principles of cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue in policies and actions of government at all levels, but particularly in education. UNESCO considers the promotion of “mutual understanding” through such mainstreaming to be a core component of a sustainable future for humanity.
Mr Regenvanu currently holds positions in a number of international organisations, including as an Executive Board Member of the Pacific Islands Museums Association (PIMA), the International Council of Museums Asia Pacific (ICOM-ASPAC) and the International Committee on the Training of Personnel, International Council of Museums (ICTOP). He is also a member of the “Advisory Committee of Experts for the UNESCO World Report on Cultural Diversity”, which will be released by UNESCO later this year.
