Vanuatu Cultural Centre

The Cultural Centre was first established in the early 1960s by the then colonial government as the “Port Vila Library” in a purpose-built building on main street. It soon acquired bird, insect, mineral and shell collections and became a Museum in addition. By the mid-1970s, the institution had became the Port Vila Cultural Centre, had begun a collection of cultural artifacts and historical items and had its first two rurally based fieldworkers. The work of the fieldworkers reflected an “indigenisation” of the focus of the Centre, which in turn saw the establishment and rapid growth of the Film and Sound Unit and the documentation of oral histories and traditional performances. In 1993 the first women fieldworkers were put in place under the newly established Women’s Culture Project.

The Cultural Centre remained a small institution in terms of staffing and budget until 1994/1995, when staff numbers increased dramatically. This was due in part to additional Government funding of positions in anticipation of a new Museum building being constructed and partly to the absorption into the Centre of the Vanuatu Cultural and Historic Sites Survey (VCHSS) and its staff, previously a project funded by the European Union. When the new National Museum building opened in late 1995, it was purpose-built to house the National Museum and the National Film and Sound Unit and their respective collections. The National Cultural and Historic Sites Survey (VCHSS) moved into the new building also, leaving the National Library to expand into the space vacated in the old building. In 1997, the Young Peoples Project was established as another section within the Centre specifically dedicated to research and advocacy on young peoples’ issues. Today the Cultural Centre boasts a staff of about 25, a project staff of about 15 and a total of over 100 volunteer fieldworkers distributed throughout the island group, two buildings in the capital Port Vila and one building in Lakatoro on the island of Malakula, the Malakula Cultural Centre.

FUNCTIONS OF THE VANUATU CULTURAL CENTRE

1. The development of national cultural policy;
2. The organisation of national and international cultural and arts festivals, workshops and conferences;
3. The sponsoring and coordination of programs of cultural research in the country;
4. The provision of national library services, including a role as the national book depository;
5. The maintenance of a collection of all literature written about Vanuatu in the “Vanuatu Collection” of the national library;
6. The identification, survey and protection of sites of cultural and historic significance and the maintenance of a register of these sites;
7. The collection of rare and important pieces of material culture for storage and display in the National Museum;
8. The identification and repatriation of cultural heritage collections held overseas, including obtaining copies of early photographs and films;
9. The recording and documentation of the history and traditions of the country, mostly on audio tape;
10. The recording on video of aspects of the history and traditions of the country, including customary performances, rituals and historic events;
11. The provision of video recording services to record miscellaneous events at the request of the public;
12. The production and publication of informational and educational materials in literary, audio and audiovisual formats;
13. Generally, responsibility for the management of the cultural heritage of the country.