5th Pacific Thought Symposium

by campbelltownartscentre

5th Pacific Thought Symposium, Bringing Forth the Ancestors, Seymour Centre, January 10 2010

In 2010, the MAU Artistic Director Lemi Ponifasio convened the first Pacific Thought Symposium to be held in Australia. The symposium was a rare opportunity to share different views and cultural philosophies, and to provoke and propose new ways to grapple with Pacific thought. Ponifasio’s theme – Bringing Forth the Ancestors – explored the common ground shared by Sydney’s Indigenous and Pacific communities.

Comprising artists, cultural leaders and dynamic thinkers from Pacific communities in Australia and Asia, the panel included Edge of Elsewhere participants Richard Bell, Dacchi Dang and Shigeyuki Kihara. Edge of Elsewhere curator Lisa Havilah was also in attendance.

As a theme, Bringing Forth The Ancestors proposed that even if the body exists in a bleak present the ancestor still lurks in the vitality that the body inherits.