The 3rd South Pacific Festival of Arts was held in Papua New Guinea during 1980 (30 June - 12 July).

The 3rd Festival was held during the Honourable Sir Julius Chan's term as Prime Minister of PNG. Bart Philemon was the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the South Pacific Festival of Arts (SPFA) and Ralph Wari was the Executive Officer of SPFA.

1980 SPFA - Participating Countries

• Australia
• New Zealand
• Norfolk Island
• New Caledonia
• Tonga
• Niue
• Cook Islands
• French Polynesia
• Pitcairn Island
• The Northern Marianas
• Guam
• Federated States of Micronesia
• Kiribati
• Tuvalu
• Nauru
• The Solomons
• The Tokelaus
• American Samoa
• Western Samoa
• New Hebrides
• Futuna
• Wallis
• Fiji
• Tonga
• and, of course, Papua New Guinea

The opening day of the 1980 festival began with the arrival of a canoe flotilla. Used in 1976 simply as a graphic symbol, the canoe has now become the live heart of the festivals. Some craft in the flotilla - the canoe from Manus Island north of the Papua New Guinea coastline was one - had travelled over 1000 kilometres to arrive at Ela Beach, Port Moresby, that morning. A voyaging canoe from the New Hebrides was also due to arrive: but bad weather delayed it. - see -- http://www.art-newzealand.com/Issues11to20/sparts.htm

A special coin was minted to celebrate the third South Paciic Festival of Arts. The coin, a fifty toea (50t), is silver in colour with a diameter of 30.00mm. The reverse design displays the South Pacific Festival of Arts Logo (1980).

© Image courtesy of worldcoingallery.com

The 120 page official programme may be available - ISBN 07247 0239 0 - It consisted of profiles of the countries exhibiting, examples of art, etc.

An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a 10-digit or new 13-digit product number which is specific to a particular title, edition and publisher. Searching by ISBN makes it easy to find the EXACT book you need.

Sample of the SPFA Program

1972 Festival of Pacific Arts, Fiji Islands
1976 Festival of Pacific Arts, New Zealand
1980 Festival of Pacific Arts, Papua New Guinea - YouTube Video
1985 Festival of Pacific Arts, French Polynesia
1988 Festival of Pacific Arts, Australia
1992 Festival of Pacific Arts, Cook Islands
1996 Festival of Pacific Arts, Samoa
2000 Festival of Pacific Arts, New Caledonia
2004 Festival of Pacific Arts, Palau
2008 Festival of Pacific Arts, American Samoa

Sticker produced to promote the Festival