The people of Qoma for generations have been traditional fisherfolk for the Ratu mai Verata, the overlord of Verata, an ancient kingdom in today’s Tailevu province. \nThey also serve the Ratu mai Dawasamu and are administratively under the Ratu of Namena with the present system of provincial administration. All come under today’s Tailevu province on eastern mainland Vitilevu.\n\nThey are renown for their traditional knowledge of fishing in observing the ocean currents, wind direction, the sky, understanding their fishing zones, the seasonal and temporal nature of fishing activities.\nIt is their traditional obligation to present turtle to the chiefs of Verata and Dawasamu. There are established traditional protocols; from catching turtle to its presentation process, its taboos and strict adherence to elders who will be leading the delegation.

Ibe Vakaurua, is an iconic mat for the village of Vutuna, Nairai district, Lomaiviti province. It epitomise a fraternal relationship of two prince, Ratu Bukatatanoa and Ravuravu.

TABEKASERE is a Traditional bamboo woven basket owned by the people of Navatusila in the Western Mainland of Vitilevu, Fiji.

All aspects of curriculum development at the University of the South Pacific requires intra-regional work especially within and across our 12 member countries. These are Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. This engagement includes both the needs assessment and endorsement of new courses and programmes. For the Professional Certificate, the UNESCO Pacific Heritage Hub Steering committee and UNESCO Apia Office were also instrumental in development. The programme design and proposed courses and structure were also presented at the 2016 and 2018 Council of Pacific Arts Meeting and the Pacific Culture Minister’s Meetings held in Guam and Fiji Respectively. We have not thus far leaned into inter-regional cooperation but are exploring the potential for this after the first roll out of the programme to determine what opportunities might exist for inter-regional cooperation and exchange. Dr Frances C Koya Vaka’uta talks about strengthening heritage management capacity in the Pacific Islands. \n\nASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DR. FRANCES C. KOYA VAKA’UTA is Director of the Oceania Center for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies and the Pacific Heritage Hub, at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Suva.

ICHCAP, in collaboration with UNESCO Bangkok Office, held the Intangible Cultural Heritage Webinar Series from June to August 2020 with a total of four sessions. The 23 speakers from 18 countries met with the public to grapple with alternative practices and emergent modes of delivery in various areas such as heritage education in the universities, networking amongst educational institutions for ICH safeguarding, development of ICH curricula in times of crisis, as well as inter-regional cooperation for cross-cultural instruction and learning.\n\nWhile the entire world is struggling with the impacts of the COVID-19, the ICH sector also has been hit hard by numerous public health measures such as the cancellation of major festivals and events, temporary shutdown of museums, and places of cultural activities, as well as the indefinite halting of formal and informal heritage transmission activities. How can ICH safeguarding and transmission thrive in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic, and what role can higher education institutions play to ensure the viability of living heritage in our times? ICHCAP organized this webinar series to answer these urgent questions that we all face today.\n\nIn the last session of the series on 12 August 2020, education experts from Uganda, Fiji, and Belgium were invited to discuss the development of ICH-related education modules and curricula; different contexts were discussed to show a multidimensional picture of how heritage education curriculum is drafted and implemented.\n\nPresentation1 Inter-regional Field Experiences on Curriculum Development for ICH Safeguarding: Experience from Uganda by Emily Drani, Executive Director, Cross Cultural Foundation of Uganda\nPresentation2 Strengthening Heritage Management Capacity in the Pacific Islands by Dr. Frances C. Koya Vaka’uta, Director, Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies, The University of the South Pacific\nPresentation3 From the Blue Book to a Blue Ocean Strategy in Higher Education by Dr. Marc Jacobs, Professor, University of Antwerp

This is an ancient chant designed to call an ancestral goddess. The chant predates Christ, with the goddess of harvest summoned to inspect the first fruits of the land. This ceremony was performed by the people of Lutu village, Matailobau district in Naitasiri province.

This is a story about a young man named Vugele, his grandmother, and two evil female spirits. The evil spirits were outsmarted and killed by the brilliant wit of Vugele’s grandmother.

This is a legend about Rovarovaicake, an ancestral hero who settled and named places, beaches, rivers, etc. upon arriving at what is known today as Vaturova.

This chant was performed by people from Vuinadi village, Koroalau in Cakaudrove province.

Meke, a type of traditional Fijian dance, is the repository of Fijian oral culture and served as a unifying factor in Fijian society before the arrival of Christianity. The musical form of meke is a Fijian polyphony composed around tonal center. It has short intervals and comprises seconds (major and minor), thirds (major), fourths, and occasionally fifths. The melodic movement is small and mostly stepwise with the laga (principal line) in the middle. The laga is the lead singer of the meke and sets the tempo and pitch. \n\nAbove the laga is the tagica (meaning “to chime in”) and below is the druku (bass). There are duet riffs involving the laga and tagica sung in a close polyphony of seconds, thirds, occasionally fourths, and unison. The chorus involves all the singers and is usually in a block chordal pattern. There may be two more parts: vakasalavoavoa (a descant), the highest part, sung above the tagica; and the vaqiqivatu (tenor part), weaving a polyphonic line between the bass and the laga and providing harmonic interest without being integral to the whole. \n\nThere are meke for every occasion. Some are regional (i.e., a collaboration of villages and districts) and some are collective: from those sung within the family and extended groups to the very large and impressive dance meke involving hundreds of participants. All of them form the Fijian musical canon together with instruments such as lali (large slit drums), lali ni meke (small lali for meke), derua (bamboo stamping tubes), and cobo (clapping with cupped hands). \n\nThere are other instruments such as the davui (end-blown triton shell) and the dulali (nose flute), but these instruments are not included in meke performance. The actual singing of meke involves a number of performers: men, women, and children in any combination, sitting in a tight circle around the leaders. Texts of meke are arranged in stanzas and composed in an indigenous, oral poetic style. There are no limits to the number or the length of the stanzas; rhythm and rhyme are paramount.

Meke, a type of traditional Fijian dance, is the repository of iTaukei oral culture and served as a unifying factor in Fijian society before the arrival of Christianity. The musical form of meke is a Fijian polyphony composed around tonal center. It has short intervals and comprises seconds (major and minor), thirds (major), fourths, and occasionally fifths. The melodic movement is small and mostly stepwise with the laga (principal line) in the middle.\n\nThe laga is the lead singer of the meke and sets the tempo and pitch. Above the laga is the tagica (meaning “to chime in”) and below is the druku (bass). There are duet riffs involving the laga and tagica sung in a close polyphony of seconds, thirds, occasionally fourths, and unison. The chorus involves all the singers and is usually in a block choral pattern. There may be two more parts: vakasalavoavoa (a descant), the highest part, sung above the tagica; and the vaqiqivatu (tenor part), weaving a polyphonic line between the bass and the laga and providing harmonic interest without being integral to the whole. \n\nThere are meke for every occasion. Some are regional and some are collective, from those sung within the family and extended groups to the very large and impressive dance meke involving hundreds of participants. All of them form the Fijian musical canon together with instruments such as lali (large slit drums), lali ni meke (small lali for meke), derua (bamboo stamping tubes), and cobo (clapping with cupped hands).\n\nThere are other instruments such as the davui (end-blown triton shell) and the dulali (nose flute), but these instruments are not included in meke performance. The actual singing of meke involved a number of performers: men, women, and children in any combination, sitting in a tight circle around the leaders. Texts of meke are arranged in stanzas and composed in an indigenous, oral poetic style. There are no limits to the number or the length of the stanzas; rhythm and rhyme are paramount.

Vakalutuivoce is a traditional duet chant performed by men, usually from the fisherfolk clan in the maritime islands and coastal communities of the larger islands. The chants usually tell of the successful fishing expeditions of the fisherfolk clans. \nContents may vary but usually hinge upon fishing and the coastal environment. For communities located in the islands of the larger islands, these chants are called Vakavunigasau. \nThe Vakavunigasau is a functional chant associated with tugging logs. It is constantly chanted at the construction of a house and aims to help break the monotony, boredom, and heaviness of labor. It also inculcates a sense of solidarity and unity among workers and keeps the work proceeding at a methodical and companionable rate. The singing style of Vakalutuivoce is parallel to that of Vakavunigasau. For example, a melody is added as an accompaniment to another melody.

Na iTukuni is a form of storytelling and a means for leisure and passing time. It is also a form through which oral history is passed inter-generationally. Storytellers are “gifted” individuals with vivid memories of the past, and, to reciprocate for their talent, they are gifted with food and traditional heirlooms. There are stories that tell of human triumph, trickery and jest between friends and foes, and clashes between humans and figures from the spiritual world, as well as stories that have history or some coded knowledge in them. Some stories are about characters from the spiritual realm and feats of ancestral heroes. \n\nOther stories tell of humor, tragedy, exile, unrequited romance, death, and even cheating death. Storytelling was the equivalent of today’s television and social media. It kept members of a clan entertained and enthralled when storytellers held court around an open fire before a starry-eyed audience, mimicking voices and gestures. Storytelling not only enhanced social cohesion, but served as a repository of a clan’s intangible heritage, particularly in a culture that was highly and predominantly oral and remains so even today.

Our Cultural Expressions: Indigenous Sounds of Fiji home\n(2017 Fiji-ICHCAP Digitization Project of ICH-related Analogue Audiovisual Materials)\n\nSince its foundation in 1904 as a national museum, the Fiji Museum has safeguarded and promoted various cultures and heritage of Pacific islands. The Fiji population consists mostly of iTaukei (native Fijians), Fijians of Indian descent, and Rotumans. The Fiji Museum has collected and shared tangible and intangible cultural heritage of such various ethnic groups through various methods to widely promote Fiji’s cultural heritage.\n\nIn 2017, ICHCAP carried out the Digitization Project of ICH-related Analogue Materials in cooperation with the Fiji Museum, which resulted in the digitization of five hundred hours of analogue materials. Based on this, ICHCAP has published an audiovisual collection, titled “Our Cultural Expressions: Indigenous Sounds of Fiji”, which contains selected digitized materials that well represent Fiji’s traditions. The Fiji Museum not just contributed to the digitization of analogue materials, but also supported the production of the collection to help more people discover the precious materials.\n\nThe Fijian collection consists of nine CDs and one DVD. The collection lists eighty tracks of chants, children’s songs, dance music, hymns, and folk songs of everyday life of Fijians that were recorded in the 1970s. The collection also features a video on mat weaving that was recorded in 1997. The video introduces mat weaving, which is considered an important element in the culture and life of Fijians, and its social and cultural significance. The collection is expected to be widely utilized in ICH-related research and also in education and transmission of the knowledge at schools.\n\nThe digitization project is meaningful in that it has restored analogue materials in Fiji, which were at risk of severe damage, to enhance academic values and raise public awareness of the materials. ICHCAP will continue its efforts to identify valuable materials in the Asia-Pacific region and provide a better access to ICH information through related projects.

ICH Courier is the quarterly magazine on ICH in the Asia-Pacific region issued by ICHCAP since 2009. Every issue has its own theme under the title of the Windows to ICH, and the theme of the Vol 2 is 'ICH AND LABOR'.

ICH Courier is the quarterly magazine on ICH in the Asia-Pacific region issued by ICHCAP since 2009. Every issue has its own theme under the title of the Windows to ICH, and the theme of the Vol 20 is 'TRADITIONAL TUG-OF-WAR GAME.'

ICHCAP, together with the Digital Heritage Lab, Graduate School of Culture Technology, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, organized an international seminar entitle “Protecting the Past for the Future: Digital Documentation as One of the Imperative Tools for Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage,” 20 July 2019.\n\nThe seminar consisted of three sessions: the first covered the archiving and visualization of intangible cultural heritage; the second focused on digital documentation methods for tangible cultural heritage; and the third discussed the challenges faced by Korea in establishing cultural heritage-related digital data.

ICH Courier is the quarterly magazine on ICH in the Asia-Pacific region issued by ICHCAP since 2009. Every issue has its own theme under the title of the Windows to ICH, and the theme of the Vol 15 is 'ORAL TRADITIONS AND PRACTICES RELATED TO SNAKES.'