VOU Dance Fiji company director Sachiko Soro says they’re not able to access support from the Government because there is no data available.
Speaking at the proposed Fiji Cultural Statistics Framework public consultations in Nadi this week, Ms Soro said it had been difficult lobbying for support for the creative and cultural space because of a lack of data to back them up.
“I have been going on about the lack of cultural data for, like, the last 30 years,” she said.
“About how many people that the cultural and creative sector supports because a lot of it is informal and it is not in the formal sector. I know that the data that is really easy to capture is the quantitative data, how many people are employed, how much money you make.”
Ms Soro said they also needed data to access government grants.
“So, the Government can give more support to Fijian artists. At the moment we’re not able to access anything because there is no data
According to the Department of Culture, Heritage & Arts, the Fiji Cultural Statistics Framework consultation aims to gather input to ensure the framework reflects Fiji’s rich cultural landscape.
“The framework will establish guidelines and tools necessary for cultural data collection and analysis by Government,” it stated.
“Cultural statistics will measure the social and economic dimension contribution of culture to national development.”
