Ralph Regenvanu

Ralph Regenvanu is a married man. He is also an artist who paints and illustrates. One of his paintings was featured in the traveling exhibition "Treasures of the British Museum”.

Ralph Regenvanu was born on 20 September 1970 in Suva, Fiji. His father Sethy Regenvanu would later on become a prominent politician. His Australian-born mother Dorothy Rutter was a pastor in the Presbyterian Church. He has four younger brothers.

His family left Fiji for Australia when Ralph was three years old. They eventually moved back to Vanuatu.

Ralph Regenvanu went to Australia for his higher education and enrolled at the Australian National University where he studied anthropology, archeology and development studies. He obtained an Honor’s degree in development studies in 1991. The ‘Les Nouvelles calédoniennes’ described him as "Vanuatu's first anthropologist".

Ralph Regenvanu returned to Vanuatu after receiving his degree and took up a job as a curator of the national Museum of Vanuatu.

He had been engaged in documenting cultural sites on a number of Vanuatu islands and by drawing on this experience he helped to formulate the Vanuatu Cultural Research Policy in 1992. The policy became operational in 1994.

He along with a few other like-minded individuals founded the Pacific Islands Museums Association in 1994. Three years later, he became a member of its inaugural Executive Board in 1997. He remained on the Board till 2009.

He emphasized on the importance of preserving cultural heritage while being open to Western developments. He felt that a negotiation between traditional culture and western culture was necessary for the sustainable development of a nation.

He always advocated advancing the interests of local cultures and has made numerous attempts to highlight the importance of native customs and their relevance in present-day society. He has been described as "a world authority on custom” because of his in-depth knowledge about the customs and traditions of the world.

In 2006, he was awarded the title of Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters) by the Government of France, for his work in the field of culture.

The same year he was also honored with the title of Libehkamel Tah Tomat (Caretaker of the Sacred Nakamal) by Chief Matthias Batick of the Nende people of South West Bay, Malakula.