23 Jan 2008

SPC new cultural adviser has firm ideas on how to approach new job

2:05 pm on 23 January 2008

The newly appointed adviser for culture at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community Human Development Programme in Noumea admits she has her work cut out.

Elise Huffer says culture is an area that is often neglected or marginalised in governance and development policy.

She says there are three areas which she needs to look at and they include cultural heritage, cultural industries and cultural epstimology or bringing cultural prospective into policy making.

"In a lot of our educational systems in the Pacific, people's ways of knowing and understanding the world and world views have been pushed aside, so people's cultures are not often really promoted in the school system."

Elise Huffer says while the job will be difficult she'll be looking for assistance from the region's communities.