Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FESTPAC) 2028
The Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC) is the Pacific’s largest regional cultural gathering of people and one of the largest cultural gatherings in the world. FestPAC has been held every 4 years since its inception in 1972, when it was held in Fiji as a celebration of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific and their traditions, languages and cultures. The 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC) was held 6-16 June 2024 in Hawai’i. Creative Australia took a delegation of 75 First Nations people. The next FestPAC gathering will occur in New Caledonia in 2028.
Find out more about FestPAC 2024
Purrumpa National Gathering II, Perth 2027
Purrumpa, held in 2022 on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country (Canberra), was the second national gathering of First Nations peoples in support of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board and First Nations arts. In 1973, the first seminar on First Nations arts was held in Canberra and attended by approximately 400 representatives from across the country.
Prime Minister Gough Whitlam gave the opening address. Funded by the newly formed Aboriginal Arts Board of the Australia Council, the meeting established guidelines designed to support the strategic activation of First Nations peoples around the country to participate in wide-ranging arts activities.
In 2022, Purrumpa was attended by approximately 600 representatives from the First Nations arts and cultural sector. Presentations and discussions included the promotion of social, cultural, and economic development opportunities, and the facilitation of a national collective voice across all areas of artistic and cultural practice – in the form of the National Indigenous Arts and Cultural Authority (NIACA). Over the five-day gathering, Voice, Treaty and Truth-telling in the arts and cultural sector was central to discussions, with a focus on the changing landscape over the past 50 years and the future needs of First Nations artists and cultural leader. Creative Australia made a commitment to hosting a national gathering of this nature every 5 years. The next Purrumpa National Gathering will be in Perth in 2027.
