"Mani blong timbuna "

The traditional trade valuables of New Guinea.

An illustrated lecture by Col Davidson.

When the white men first came to Oceania, they traded nails and other pieces of metal, scraps of fabric and beads with the native population for food and artefacts, but every cultural group they encountered had their own currencies and exchange valuables long before the strangers arrived. Sometimes these traditional currencies were so entrenched, the whites had to imitate them - importing pearl shell form the Torres Straits and glass dog teeth and marine "shells" from England and Germany to pay for food and labour. Col Davidson is Australia's foremost authority on tribal currencies and trade valuables. He has been collecting coins since the age of five, and started collecting tribal currencies, mainly form Oceania, in 1974. He is a past President of the International Primitive Money Society. Col's talk will cover traditional money and trade valuables from a wide range of areas in New Guinea, from the Dani and the Asmat of West Papua to the Gulf of Papua and the Torres Straits During the evening he will introduce us to the beautiful, fascinating and sometimes gruesome exchange valuables that were (and in some cases still are) in circulation before the shilling and the kina became legal tender.

Date - 6:30pm March 5th, 2008

St.John's Anglican Church Hall, Darlinghurst Road, opposite Tewkesbury Avenue, King's Cross

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