Call for festival boycott ignored

Press, 21 June 1985, Page 25

Call for festival boycott ignored

PA Wellington The New Zealand Government will ignore a call to. boycott the forthcoming Festival of Pacific Arts in Tahiti, said the Minister for the Arts, Mr Tapsell. He was commenting on suggestions by the Mayor of the Tahiti suburb of Faa’a, Mr Oscar Temaru, that New Zealand should boycott the festival in protest against the way the Territorial Government of French Polynesia was using it to promote its own policies. Mr Tapsell said the fact that the New Zealand Government had accepted an invitation to the festival should not be seen as implying only particular view towards the territorial government’s policies. Almost all the South Pacific countries would be taking part, he said. The only effect of a New Zealand boycott would be to disappoint the 60-odd New Zealand artists and performers who had been making preparations for several months. The festival represented a rare and valued opportunity

for South Pacific peoples to meet, celebrate and discover the arts and cultural traditions of the region. Mr Tapsell, who will represent New Zealand at the opening of the festival, said he had not been able to meet Mr Temaru, but officials had conveyed his views to the mayor.