Honorary Cultural Ambassador Patrick Victor brings artists’ concerns to Assembly committee |04 July 2020
Honorary Cultural Ambassador Patrick Victor during his meeting with members of the Media, Youth and Culture Committee (MYCC) of the National Assembly
The different challenges artists are facing which have been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, propositions about how Seychelles could make good use of its culture as a source of revenue and to promote tourism, environment protection and living values were discussed in a National Assembly committee meeting.
Honorary Cultural Ambassador Patrick Victor discussed these issues during a meeting he had with the Media, Youth and Culture Committee (MYCC) of the National Assembly on Wednesday this week.
Ambassador Victor started off by addressing some of the pertinent issues that artists are currently facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He emphasised on the need for a “way forward” now for artists and he pointed out that these last few months have been a learning curve for everyone involved in artistic work.
He took the opportunity to bring forward the idea that Seychelles could make good use of its culture as a source of revenue and to promote tourism, environment protection and living values among others.
He raised the possibility of a “music festival” that would attract people from around the world and that could possibly help put Seychelles back on its feet after the pandemic quiets itself down.
In addition Ambassador Victor expressed his sentiments towards reviewing and updating the existing policies to make them up-to-date to the present needs of the country, to cater for every artist in the right way. Moreover, he argued that art and culture could be another pillar for the economy and that we need to also start to think of ways to use it to our advantage in the coming months.
The committee members also discussed the impact of the pandemic on the artists’ economic and financial situations. Members wanted to know why several plans to benefit artists and which had been laid down years ago still have not come to fruition.
In conclusion, both Ambassador Victor and the committee members spoke of the plans to have the documents for the traditional dance Moutya re-submitted to the Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) for it to be considered as another cultural heritage of Seychelles.
Contributed by the National Assembly
