Modern research continues to reveal secrets long held in uncatalogued documents and artefacts in rich archives. The centrepiece of this edition is the story of current research to identify which of three early Maori carvings is the wooden self-portrait of rangatira (chief) Hongi Hika carved from a fencepost at the farm of missionary Reverend Samuel Marsden in […]
All published stories from the OAS Journal
Three busts and a cape – the adventurous life of Hongi Hika
Story by Brent Kerehona | Image Caption: Bust of Hongi Hika, possibly self-portrait, carved 1814 in Parramatta, NSW Australia. Brighton Hove Museum, United Kingdom, photo © Brent Kerehona. Ki te whei ao, ki te ao maarama, Ki te whei ao, ki te ao maarama,Tihei Mauri Ora! (From out of the darkness, into the light,From out […]
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Easter Island at the NGA
Story By Crispin Howarth | Photo Caption: Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Moai Kavakava, 18th-mid 19th century. Wood, bone, obsidian. Private Australian collection. There is perhaps nowhere in the world as isolated and remote as Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Known primarily for the enigmatic stone monolith giants, moai, found across its plains and coastlines, it is in wood […]
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Warren Campbell of Bubble Artefacts
Interview by Jim Elmsie | Photo Caption: Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Moai Kavakava, 18th-mid 19th century. Wood, bone, obsidian. Private Australian collection. Jim Elmsie: Warren Campbell, can you explain what Bubble Art is and how it operates? WC: For me, the name ‘Bubble’ captures the diversity of tribal cultures, and the fragility of those cultures in the technological […]
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War Art & Ritual Shields from the Pacific
2019, 2 vols boxed, 484 pages, Bill Evans (ed), private press Bill Evans, Sydney, 750 copies. Reviewed by Crispin Howarth This is an ambitious work, signalling the culmination of a lifetime’s passion upon one single form of material culture by Bill Evans, a Sydney based art dealer. Volume one has firm focus on shields from […]
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Leonard French – An Australian Artist Inspired by Melanesia
Story by Reg MacDonald | Photo Caption: The late Leonard French in his home cum studio, a 19th century mill at Heathcote, Central Victoria. In the shadow box above his head is an ancient and rare Boiken figure. Melanesian artefacts played a big hand in the creative life of Leonard French, the Australian artist who designed […]
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Mathias Kauage, PNG Artist
Image: Mathias Kauage at Ray Hughes Gallery February 1999. Image by Ben Rushton. Mathias Kauage O.B.E. was Papua New Guinea’s best known and most highly awarded artist of the contemporary era. He was artistically active in the six crucial years leading up to 1975 (when PNG became an independent nation), until 2003 when he died. […]
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Another Successful Tribal Art Fair Sydney
by Bill Rathmell The Tribal Art Fair Sydney, held by the Oceanic Art Society at the National Art School on 17 August, may not be described as the only one of its kind in the world (as is the Parcours des Mondes, elsewhere in this Journal), it is certainly set fair to become the best in […]
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Notes on Dumont d’Urville
One of the early French navigators whose collection will be viewed in La Rochelle on the OAS Pre-2020 Parcours Tour of South West France. By Pierre Laffont Dumont d’Urville survived three circumnavigations of the earth including through the then-unchartered waters of the South Pacific. He named many locations previously unknown to Europeans, most of them with a […]
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OAS tour of South West France Galleries
Pre-2020 Parcours des Mondes If enough members are interested in viewing the Oceanic Art collections from early French navigators and collectors, the Oceanic Art Society, under the direction of Pierre Laffont, proposes to organize a tour in the South West of France in the 4 days preceding the opening of the September 2020 Parcours des Mondes in Paris. […]
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