Cultural resurgence - not rebellion

Pacific Pulse visited the Festival of Pacific Arts in 2008 and covered a story about the resurgence of traditional tattooing amongst Pacific Islanders - a tradition that had been discouraged by earlier missionary settlement in the last century. I personally had planned a trip to my grandmother's village in Yule Island over the Christmas holidays recently solely to get inked - to honour my grandmother, who is almost in her 90s. Taita, my grandmother traditionally was required to have her entire body (like many other girls on our island) to get her entire body tattooed as a sign of matury and womanhood when she reached puberty. As a young Papua New Guinean who left Papua New Guinea in my early teens, I have confronted issues of who I am, and my personal cultural identity. It is said that in order to know who you are, you need to know where you come from and it has given me a sense of immense pride knowing that I come from a rich cultural background. Thus, in order to celebrate the women before me and to gain the cultural strength to develop an individual identity in the 21st century, I must first know the history and traditions of my people. Click here to watch Pacific Pulse's Episode here.