Lake Sentani Festival to be Held to Preserve Papua's Culture

No wonder Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu once said the abundance of traditional art potential in the province needed serious attention and the gentle touch of professional and skilled hands.

Suebu said skilled and professional people with a vision of the future were encouraged to explore, develop, and save the plenteous Papua traditions and cultural arts from extinction.

"Not only that, Papuan traditional arts really have precious market value, and they also support the future of the province’s tourism sector without the risk of losing their specific characteristics," the governor said.

Papua is actually rich in traditional arts but unfortunately it lacks human resources to develop them.

"Therefore it should be our common consideration and awareness as Papuan ethnic community to save our own cultural heritage," Governor Suebu said.

According to the Lake Sentani Festival committee chairperson, various traditional dances of Papua have been prepared to jazz up the event from June 19-23 this year.

"Clad in bark and leaves, thousands of male and female dancers of Papua origin are ready to entertain the participants and visitors of the 4th Lake Sentani cultural festival," Anna said in Jayapura on Wednesday.

She said various preparations and the trainings of cultural attractions from Jayapura in particular and Papua in general to make the event a great success have been made since the beginning of this year. At the opening ceremony of the festival at Kalkote resort on the side of Lane Sentani, Anna said the participants and visitors would be awed by the beauty of Lake Sentani and entertained by the traditional dances found nowhere else in the world.

"Just like the previous festivals, the shouts and cheers of thousands of Papua traditional dancers will reverberate the atmosphere of Kalkote resort as the center of Lake Sentani Festival 2011," Anna said.

Anna said the great annual cultural event was intended to support the government’s program in tourism sector and to preserve the local cultural values to enrich the national cultural treasure.