All published stories from the OAS Journal

Crazy Bailers

01/04/2015 By Hermione Waterfield

By Hermione Waterfield. Bailers are used all over the world to scoop the water from the bottom of boats, but those in the Pacific are carved in wood. Objects for practical use, but nonetheless the Maori of New Zealand often decorated them lavishly. They were prized items for those who sailed with Captain Cook on […]

Oceanic and Aboriginal art in the collection of the Melbourne Savage Club

01/02/2015 By James Elmslie

Lecture Review Lecture by Dr. Ross Bowden, November 15, 2014 Ross Bowden, DPhil (Oxford), taught anthropology at La Trobe University, Melbourne, from 1979 to 1999 and was then a visiting research associate for ten years. He is now an independent scholar. Ross joined the Melbourne Savage Club to help curate its collection of Aboriginal and […]

Myth & Magic: Sepik Art Coming to the NGA

01/02/2015 By Oceanic Art Society Australia

The countdown for the National Gallery of Australia’s landmark exhibition, Myth & Magic; Art of the Sepik River, Papua New Guinea, has started with the grand opening date set for August 6th in Canberra. This long anticipated event will be followed the next day by the annual OAS Forum, hosted by the NGA, focused on […]

Senta Taft Hendry

01/02/2015 By Oceanic Art Society Australia

28 January 1924 – 6 December 2014 Last December saw the passing of tribal art collector and adventurer, Senta Taft-Hendry. At 85 years of age she was easily Australia’s oldest commercial pilot – yet she could possibly have been 90. Having arrived in Australia as a teenager without a passport in 1938, the lively adventurer […]

Discovering Worlds: transforming the Pacific displays at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum

01/02/2015 By Oceanic Art Society Australia

By Tony Eccles The Royal Albert Memorial Museum is an award-winning[1] local authority-run museum which is based in the city of Exeter, in Devon. The acquisition of ethnographic items started as early as 1865 when the museum was being built. In 1998 it received designation status.[2] The collection numbers some 12,000 items from Africa, the […]

Impressions – Parcours des Mondes Paris

01/02/2015 By Oceanic Art Society Australia

By Krisztina Turza A fine and glorious sunny day welcomed visitors to the 13th Parcours des Mondes art fair on 9 September 2014 in Paris. As excited as one can be on his/her first visit to the ‘greatest tribal art show on Earth’, I have to say Parcours exceeded my expectations and truly lived up […]

Bismarck Archipelago Art

01/02/2015 By James Elmslie

Kevin Conru (editor) with photography by Hughes Dubois. Published by 5 Continents, Milan, Italy, 2014. 327 pages. Reviewed by Jim Elmslie. This vast and gorgeous book is a work of art in itself. It is a thrilling pictorial survey of the material culture of the Bismarck region with each exquisite piece visually captured by one […]