No Money For Cook Islands Artists Group To Attend Festival
Eighteen artists from the Cook Islands did not make it to this year's Pacific Festival of Arts in American Samoa due to the non-availability of government funds to pay for their airline tickets.
Secretary for Culture Makiuti Tongia says that Cabinet had approved a submission from Minister for Culture Wilkie Rasmussen for state funds of around US$22,000 to pay for the artists' return airfares. However, Tongia says it was up to the Finance Ministry to identify a source of funding.
To date Tongia has yet to receive any word from the Secretary for Finance, Sholan Ivaiti.
"At this point it is too late to attend the festival,” Tongia said. “However, this does not mean that the artists were not represented ... the 16-strong crew members on the Vaka Te Au O Tonga include tattooist Ti Pekepo and carver Ngametua Enua.”
The artists include the Cook Islands’ master carver Mike Tavioni and some painters.
The artists' airfares was not the only submission knocked back by the Finance Ministry. An earlier submission of US$38,000 for the Arts Festival delegation was also turned down by the ministry. Some members of the delegation including paramount chief, Pa Marie Ariki, paid their own way to the festival, which ends on Wednesday.
The Cook Islands is represented at the festival by the 50-member Takitumu cultural group who won last year's annual Te Maeva Nui Cultural Festival. Also there are the crew members of the Cook Islands’ double hull Vaka Te Au O Tonga.
