Picture of person working on database (ie. Malcolm in new office?)
The database was launched in June 2008, and identifies all existing resources on sandroing held by the Cultural Centre. All literature and printed materials about sandroing held by the National Library and all artifacts related to sandroing held by the National Museum can be easily accessed and used to produce specific sets of sandroing information (for example, pertaining to one particular area of an island or one particular oral tradition). Separate databases for the photographic, audio and audiovisual collections of the National Photo, Film and Sound Archive and the sites database of the National Cultural and Historic Sites Register already identify items linked to sandroing.
These databases are still being collated, but already consist of thousands of items in each collection. All records in any of the collections relating to sandroing will be easily accessible by using the keywords “sandroing” (Bislama), “sand drawing” (English) or “dessins sur sable” (French).
SOSAK is undertaking a continuous dialogue on the declaration of sandroings as ‘private’ (or ‘taboo’) or ‘public’, which can be performed by any practitioner. Much progress was made on this front in the 4th Meeting of SOSAK at the MALAMPA Sandroing Festival in May 2008.
For more information about the Sandroing Database, contact the Vanuatu Cultural Centre or the National Library of Vanuatu.