people had to become better educated about and more accepting of each other’s cultures. “As a people if we toss aside our differences in cultures and beliefs we can progress and develop as one. That’s like, not completely tossing aside our culture – no! That’s very important to all of us! But to not let it get in the way of our unity and our togetherness as one country,” she said. “Art is expression and if we can’t tell each other, let us show each other, let us lead each other.” She likened PNG to a rainforest where millions of species co- exist, “but unlike a rainforest we are still learning to embrace the differences in each other’s cultures and coexist in co- dependent harmony. The knowledge of our ancestors has been passed down through generations not to create disputes and harm others but instead, to bring people “Instead of fighting one another for our differences, we must embrace them and share our ancestral knowledge”
Akis Youth Art Prize winner, “Tabu Taku”, Digital Art, by Brooklyne Stegman, 15 (pictured above right)
for the Goroka school where she is school captain, the Australian International School PNG. The talented teen, who now has a second-degree black belt in the Korean karate-based martial art of Tang Soo Do – one of the first people to reach black belt status in PNG in 2022 when still only 13 – thanked her parents for supporting her “through everything, through my hobbies, from martial arts to crochet!” Her digital art piece portrays a young woman reading a book and being filled with inspiration – depicted by the cultural and wildlife images flowing from and
above her. “I chose a blue-green colour palette to represent nature and the earth, a yellow kolos (meri blouse) to represent hope, and a book to represent education and knowledge,” Brooklyne wrote in her entry. At the awards night, the articulate young woman said the name she chose to explain the message in her art was “Tabu Taku”, which means “one family, all united as one” in her Bola language of West New Britain’s Talasea District. She said unity and peace for PNG was her dream for the future, and to achieve that
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