Divine Word University (DWU) Madang campus is gearing up for a feast of traditional singing and dancing on its cultural day set to take place on Saturday 19th August, 2017.
The cultural day show is popular with local residents and visitors to Madang and is one of the must-see events in Madang town each year.
The students are preparing to participate in their provincial groups for the event to be staged under the theme ‘Valuing our cultural heritage through collaboration’.
The Students’ Representative Council is taking the lead in the preparation in partnership with the provincial clubs of students.
The cultural day will be held at the usual venue – the Divine Word Missionary park behind the old YC hall – next to the university campus.
A parade of the different traditional dancing groups will be held at the SVD memorial auditorium on the evening of Friday 18th august. The parade enables the different groups to introduce their cultural performance that would be presented on the cultural day.
The cultural day weekend will prelude the DWU foundation day on Sunday 20th August followed by the alumni day on Monday 21st august.
The foundation day marks the date when the government under Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan announced that the former Divine Word Institute was to become a university on August 1996.
The Alumni Day commemorates the contributions and achievements of DWU graduates. The highlight of the Alumni Day will be the awarding of the Alumnae of the Year Award.
The award, inaugurated in 2015, is given by DWU each year to a distinguished alumni member in recognition of his or her work in development including community services, excellence in profession or contribution to the development of the university.
Meantime, Acting Secretary of the Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, Fr Jan Czuba is expected to be among the dignitaries on the day. Fr Czuba is the former president of DWU who introduced the alumni of the year award in 2015 and is expected to speak on the occasion.
Fr Czuba joined the former divine word institute as president in 1995 and oversaw its transition into a university in 1996 and led the university until his term expired at the end of 2015.