What is the Mystery Object?
by Margaret Cassidy Last edition we heard from Timothy Pietsch, Manager, Wantok Place, North Adelaide (Museum of Papua New Guinea Artefacts) that when having their collection assessed the museum staff had …
OAS Journal | Online
Letter to the editor
One of the reasons the Oceanic Art Society was established was to encourage Sydney's Australian Museum to put more of its Oceanic Art collection, the largest in the world, on display. Your review of the comprehensive and empathetic book by Maia Nuku: Oceania the Shape of Time, in the latest OAS Journal, highlights stark differences in the contemporary approach to Oceanic museology and curatorship here and in the United States.
Bill Evans “A complete life”
Bill Evans had an extraordinary life as a father and grandfather; as a Tribal Art and antique rug expert, dealer and collector, and as a friend to a vast and eclectic group of people spread across the globe.
Tibuta – Kinaakiia Ainen Kiribati: Tibuta – Identifies Kiribati Women Exhibition
Bottle Creek Gallery, Pātaka art + Museum, Porirua, Aotearoa New Zealand, 7 October - 11 November 2023. Catalogue published by Te Rabakau Press, 2023.
Chief Paul Yapmunggwiyo Kongi: A Legacy of Knowledge and Artistic Excellence c.1950-2024
Chief Paul Yapmunggwiyo Kongi, clan brother, chief of Mariwai Village and a master artist of the Kwoma people from the Sepik River region in Papua New Guinea has died in the same village where he spent his life serving his community as a teacher, magistrate, and storyteller.
Tiwi Islands objects: Early Dutch Entanglements and Maarten van Delft, 1705
When I mentioned in passing that I had attended the Pacific Art Association Europe annual meeting in Chartres, France, mid December 2023, the editor of this Journal immediately asked what were the highlights
The Yalaku — History and Warfare in the Middle Sepik
2023, 222 pages, by Ross Bowden, published by Sean Kingston Publishing, Canon Pyon, Herefordshire, UK. Review by Barry Craig Vol. 28,4 of the OAS Journal featured a review by Bill Rathmell of …
Te Ra: Navigating Home
Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum, until Sunday 17 August 2025. Review by Margaret Cassidy Navigating Home is definitely the right title for this exhibition of cultural homecoming tucked into …
Mystery Object
By Timothy Pietsch, Manager, Wantok Place, North Adelaide (Museum of Papua New Guinea Artefacts) We have been doing some work at the Wantok Place museum in Adelaide having our collection assessed. …
We are the sea: Oceania: The Shape of Time
2023, pages, Maia Nuku, Met Publications, New York, Distributed by Yale University Press. Reviewed by Erin Vink (Ngiyampaa), Curator, First Nations art (local and global), AGNSW Oceania: The Shape of …
Fenoga Tāoga Niue I Aotearoa Niue Heritage Journey In Aotearoa
Pātaka art + Museum, Porirua, Aotearoa New Zealand. November 2023 – February 2024. Review by Margaret Cassidy Porirua (Māori: Pari-ā-Rua) is a small city in the Wellington Region of the …
Tim Klingender (1964 – 2023)
Renowned art dealer and authority on Aboriginal art and passionate fisherman, OAS member Tim Klingender, died in a tragic boating accident on 20 July 2023 while fishing with his friend …
Parcours 2023 Subjective
By Krisztina Turza Parcours week saw some unusually soaring temperatures, a contrast to the expected somewhat cool, often rainy September in Paris. This may have also contributed to the celebratory …
Shield shifts: redefining provenance in north-eastern Australia
By Philip Jones ‘Provenance’ is a flexible term. Its meaning and its relevance may shift from one context or another. In the art and artefact market it usually refers to …
Research and Discoveries
This edition sees the publication of a major article by Senior Curator of Anthropology at the South Australian Museum, Philip Jones, extending his lecture at the 2022 OAS Forum held …
Oceanic Art experiences
Image Caption: Speakers at the 2023 OAS Forum in Melbourne. Image: Margaret Cassidy. Australian members have experienced a rich range of Oceanic Art experiences in recent months. A major highlight was …
Representation and misrepresentation in ethnographic film: the case of Cannibal Tours — Part II
by Ross Bowden The documentary Cannibal Tours, by the self-described ‘existential anarchist’ Australian film maker Dennis O’Rourke, has had a significant impact on the anthropological world since it was released almost …
Museums Victoria Storage Facility
by Margaret Cassidy Thirty attendees of the Oceanic Art Society Forum 2023 had the good fortune to join one of three small group tours of the stored Oceanic collections housed …
Joost Daalder (1939 – 2023)
by Kajetan Fiedorowicz, Melbourne Joost Daalder was born in the Netherlands and studied at Amsterdam, Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities before moving to New Zealand with his wife Truus in 1966 …
Tidal Kin: Stories from the Pacific, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney
What this fascinating and informative exhibition shows is that Pacific Islanders have been visiting the Sydney area since the days of the Endeavour, sharing their rich cultures and artistic practices.
Vincent Namatjira: Australia in Colour
Adelaide lays claim to being at the heart of Australian Aboriginal art with its annual Tarnanthi (come forth and appear) Fair including exhibitions at the Art Gallery of South Australia, other galleries across Adelaide and art fair, featuring the work from over 40 art centres across Australia.
Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Australian Bark Paintings from Yirrkala – Waltjaṉ ga Waltjaṉbuy Yolŋuwu Miny’tji Yirrkalawuy
2022, 352 pages, edited by Wukuṉ Waṉambi, Henry Skerritt and Kade McDonald, published by Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA and Delmonico Books, New York, …
Art and Creativity in a Guinea Society:The Kwoma in Cross-Cultural Perspective
This book really is a “must read” for those of us whose interest in Oceanic or any other kind of Indigenous art is primarily aesthetic and not underpinned by much, if any, anthropological or art-history expertise.
Through new eyes, Pacific pasts revisited
This edition of the Journal continues to share the rich information received at the highly successful 2022 OAS Forum held in the Pacific Galleries at the South Australian Museum.