Kopkop College students and teachers took four weeks to create, dramatize and produce thought-provoking videos which were showcased during the school’s cultural celebration last week Thursday, 14th September. The activity commemorated the country’s 48 years of independence and aligned with the school’s 2023 cultural show theme, ‘Embracing Culture Through Visual Context.' Deputy Principal, Mr. Isaiah Senau, said they wanted to do things differently from the usual cultural dance performances and that by involving students in such a project, it would help stimulate discussion and led students to appreciate their culture and stories and legends that make up who they are as individuals. The videos told of the selected legends from the four regions of Papua New Guinea and included the legend of Kinatun from the Autonomous region of Bougainville to the story of the creation of the Lagatoi of the Motuan people from Central Province. “It’s quite a learning process for most of the students because most are brought up here in the city and so when they were participating in these activities, they were learning from each other which also made them appreciate who they are.” The production of the video came with the support of teachers, parents and families who helped the various student regional groups to identify a legend and re-create scenes reflected in the legend. A grade eight student of Kopkop College, Michael Pa’am has also challenged young people at his school to reflect on what culture is about and told them to take something from the video and learn more from it. “In this era of our country our cultural days are mainly celebrated through singing and dancing with traditional attire and painting, but have you ever stopped to ask yourself what culture really is about?” “For example, some of us carry around Madang and Sepik bilums but do we really understand the pattern and the designs on these bilums?” “Do we know the reasons for those traditional songs and singsing, there is still so much more that we don’t know about our culture.” In addition, he stated that culture is a way of life and a way of doing things that has been passed down from generation to generation from the way we think to the way we relate to others as we all have unique cultures that define who we really are. “Imagine if there was no culture in this world; there won’t be any unity among the different people, culture brings us all together despite our different backgrounds because you see culture is us, we walk, live and breathe culture.”