Fiji’s creative arts sector remains informal and underdeveloped; this was a challenge highlighted in a recent press briefing in Suva, focused on the buildup towards the much-anticipated Dance Fest Fiji 2025.

It was made known that the challenge continues to hold back artists, especially dancers, from building long-term careers in the industry.

University of the South Pacific’s Director of the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies, Katrina Talei Igglesden, echoed these concerns at the briefing, highlighting a stronger need for grassroots backing.

[University of the South Pacific’s Director of the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies Katrina Talei Igglesden]

“I think in the future for the dance sector for Fiji we need to have really strong Fijian backing for it, I think international funding, partnership and collaboration is excellent and I think it’s a great stepping stone to get where we need to be but if there isn’t that grassroots local level investment and that doesn’t have to be in money that could be in many different ways then it won’t be able to grow in a way that it needs to and that it should.”

Igglesden acknowledged the effort currently underway to ensure a proper platform is provided for dancers in the country.

Fiji Arts Council Director Maciu Betei responded to the statement made and confirmed that there are already talks underway to ensure the welfare of dance professionals in Fiji.

“We’ve started the conversation with Mr Tobeyaweni (Mata Dance Group Founder and Fiji Island Dance Association Chairman) which is an art collective created to look after the development and management of our dancers so that it something that we’ve talked about and I am glad that we’ve had that conversation on how we can work together and its part of the bigger plan of the development of the creative sector, there are number of art collectives in Fiji that has been established but they’re not fully functional at the moment so we will try and strengthen this art collectives so we can work closely with them on how to continue to develop our local creative sector.”

As the sector gains visibility through events like the upcoming Dance Fest Fiji, arts leaders say the focus now must shift to building lasting systems, turning passion into a profession and performances into a full-on policy for the creative arts industry in Fiji.

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