Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — (December 5, 2025 with last update: December 8, 2025) As a key partner, UNESCO supports this important gathering of more than 200 historians, artists, curators, educators, students, community leaders, and policymakers from across the region—reinforcing the Organization’s commitment to strengthening cultural heritage, education, and resilient knowledge systems throughout the Pacific.

Strengthening Regional Dialogue on Cultural Heritage

Cultural preservation and heritage is a central theme of the 2025 PHA Conference. UNESCO supported a series of dedicated sessions that brought together experts from Australia, Fiji, Samoa, and New Zealand to deepen regional dialogue on safeguarding cultural heritage in its diverse forms.

The program explored critical and emerging themes such as World Heritage in the Pacific Islands, examining opportunities and challenges for protection, conservation, and sustainable management; cultural resilience and digital archiving, highlighting how technology can strengthen cultural continuity and access to knowledge; and crafting cultural resilience through Oceanic tattoo practices, demonstrating how embodied cultural traditions remain powerful expressions of identity, continuity, and community cohesion.

These exchanges enriched the conference’s academic and cultural agenda and strengthened UNESCO’s broader support to Pacific Member States in advancing inclusive cultural policies and heritage safeguarding efforts.

Tafesilafa‘i: A Journey Through Pacific Resilience

UNESCO and NUS jointly opened the Tafesilafa‘i exhibition with Professor Tuifuisa’a Patila Amosa, Vice-Chancellor of NUS, and Dr. Saui‘a Louise Mataia Milo, Dean of the Faculty of Arts—setting the tone for a week dedicated to cultural dialogue, historical inquiry, and the celebration of Pacific resilience.

Curated by Ms. Maluiao Matatumua Leua Latai, Tafesilafa‘i brings to life the 2025 conference theme Le Solosolou: Resilience in the Face of Adversity. Through art, photography, and storytelling, the exhibition explores a central question:

How does Pacific culture enable communities to endure, adapt, and thrive?

The exhibition highlights the enduring role of material arts, ritual practices, and oral traditions in anchoring Pacific identities, strengthening social cohesion, and guiding communities through rapid environmental and societal change—including the growing impacts of climate stressors.

Curator Ms. Leua Latai noted: “Tafesilafa‘i honours the wisdom carried in our stories and daily practices—wisdom that continues to guide us through adversity.”

This message strongly echoes UNESCO’s mandate to safeguard culture as a foundation for wellbeing, resilience, and sustainable development.

Culture at the Centre of Climate Action and Development

Speaking at the inauguration, Ms. Sara Garcia de Ugarte, Culture Programme Specialist at UNESCO, reaffirmed the Organization’s commitment to ensuring that culture remains central to policy, planning, and sustainable development in the Pacific:

“For UNESCO, the connection between resilience and culture is foundational. In the Pacific, our work is guided by a strong conviction: culture is not an accessory to development—culture is a pillar of development. It shapes identities, strengthens cohesion, and equips communities to meet some of our region’s most pressing challenges.”

The importance of Pacific intangible cultural heritage, including navigation, performing arts, oral traditions, craftsmanship, and traditional knowledge, in climate adaptation, disaster preparedness, and intergenerational learning, consistent with the principles of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, was underscored.

The event also featured innovative cultural performances by students of the HTE264 Teaching Expressive Arts at Primary Level course, choreographed by Primary Teacher trainees (Class of 2023) and Senior Lecturer Ms. Maluiao Matatumua Leua Latai.

A Regional Hub for Dialogue, Research, and Cultural Exchange

The PHA Conference convenes universities, museums, cultural institutions, civil society, and government actors from across the Pacific. Over four days, participants engage in multidisciplinary discussions on Pacific history, memory, identity, heritage, and resilience, creating fertile ground for long-term collaboration.

UNESCO’s participation reinforces ongoing initiatives across the Pacific on living heritage in emergencies, cultural education, climate resilience, and the creative economy—affirming the enduring relevance of Pacific knowledge systems in addressing contemporary global challenges.

By situating Tafesilafa‘i within the PHA Conference, UNESCO and the National University of Samoa reaffirm their shared commitment to ensuring that Pacific cultural heritage continues to inspire resilience, identity, and creativity for generations to come.

[The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations with the aim of promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. Wikipedia] 

For any further questions, please contact Ms Sara García de Ugarte at s.ugarte@unesco.org