Vanuatu Cultural Centre

Ralph Regenvanu, Director of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, participated in a panel of local and indigenous communities addressing the 9th Session of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) on the 24th of April 2006 at the WIPO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

The panel of local and indigenous communities was instituted by a decision of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) at its seventh session in 2004. The first panel in the series was convened at the eighth session of the IGC in June 2005. The panel in which Ralph was invited to participate is therefore the second such panel.

Ralph was one of seven members of the panel representing all regions of the world. As well as representing Vanuatu, Ralph also represented the indigenous peoples of the Pacific region. The panel addressed the topic of “Indigenous and Local Communities’ Concerns and Experiences in Protecting their Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions”. Ralph mainly spoke of the experiences of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre in this regard.