Ralph Regenvanu

Biography

Ralph Regenvanu was the Director of the National Museum of the Republic of Vanuatu from 1995 to 2006 and Director of the Vanuatu National Cultural Council from 1995 to 2010. He was a founding Board Member of both the Pacific Islands Museums Association (PIMA) and the regional cultural sites preservation organization, ICOMOS Pacifica, and was on the international drafting committee of the “Convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage” which was adopted by the General Assembly of UNESCO in 2003. He has also served as a member of the Advisory Committee of Experts assisting preparation of the 2009 UNESCO World Report on Cultural Diversity. Since 2008, Ralph has been a Member of Parliament in Vanuatu and has held many Ministerial portfolios in Government. In 2013, as Minister of Land and Natural Resources, he initiated a major overhaul of the land laws of Vanuatu aimed at enshrining the jurisdiction of customary law to determine rights to customary land and the ‘free, prior and informed consent’ of traditional owners to dealings in their customary land. From 2013 also, Ralph was Co-chair of the National Sustainable Development Plan Core Group which was responsible for developing Vanuatu’s ‘National Sustainable Development Plan 2016-2030’ which was launched in early 2017. Ralph is an inaugural Committee member of The Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty which was founded in 2010 and is currently serving as Vanuatu's Minister of Foreign Affairs.