By Parker Tambua
A group of Papua New Guineans recently participated in a cultural exchange program sponsored by the Foreign Affairs Office of Fujian Province of China.
During the program the group taken on tour around museums, cultural and scenic sites around the city of Pingtan, Xiamen and the Fujian provincial capital, Fuzhou.
The program was centered on the Austronesian language, its route in southern China and connections to Pacific islands, PNG in particular.
Deputy Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office in Fujian, Chen Guoquan when addressing China and PNG are relatives, weather it is through scientific or genetic research or even by historical findings.
“I was happy to see this team from Papua New Guinea visited the cultural sites here. In fact, Fujian is the place where the Austronesian people originated from,” Guoquan said.
“Australasian people originated from here and migrated to Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and then to PNG and to other Pacific Island countries.
“So it is safe to say we are relatives because you people originated from Fujian province. So relatives should visit each other more frequently and we should have more corporations and exchanges between the two countries.
Other heads of the Foreign Affairs also proposed to the PNG visitors on further exchanges and corporation across various fields such as art and culture, businesses development and sustainability amongst others.
One of the participants, Alex Puki from PNG National Cultural Commission said there’s a lot PNG can learn from especially in preserving culture.
“It has been a great experience coming here in Fujiang and seeing the way they have been preserving the history and evidence of Austronesian people,” Puki said.
“We can learn from this, and like what they (Chinese Fujian Foreign Affairs) have said, hopefully can foster some strong corporation with them in these sectors.”
Papua New Guinea has languages and cultures that belong to the Austronesian language family. Austronesian languages in PNG are primarily spoken in coastal and island regions.
