Promoting the understanding and appreciation of Oceanic art.
At what date the Macleay family started collecting objects made by peoples from the Pacific islands is not known. But living in Sydney from the 1830s certainly gave them opportunity and a position in society to do so. Entomological specimens, crabs, sponges and a huge variety of zoological and faunal material came to them as […]
Lecture to Oceanic Art Society, Sydney, 20 June 2016. Report by Robin Hodgson On Monday 20 June 2016, in the Annexe of the Australian Museum, our visiting lecturer, Mark Blackburn from Hawaii, gave us a fast-paced look at his life as an exuberant explorer, enterprising protector and dedicated exponent of ancient and modern Polynesian art […]
By Barry Craig, South Australian Museum I have prepared a paper from a dataset of a large number of slit gongs of the Sepik and lower Ramu region, documented during field surveys in 1981, 1982 and 1983, to demonstrate slit gong variations and their repertoire of sculptural form. That paper has too many images to […]
By Robin Hodgson The OAS Tribal Art Fair in Sydney this year on Saturday 23 July was, according to the organisers: ”A good, successful day… Probably the best presentation to date… The venue worked well.” The venue was the lovely old sandstone hall adjacent to St Matthias Church of England in Oxford Street Paddington. There […]
By Harold Gallasch and Neil McLeod. Melbourne Publishing Group, 2012. 60 pages with colour illustrations. Review by Jim Elmslie This lavishly illustrated book by OAS members, Harold Gallasch and Neil McLeod tells the story of one exceptional work of Oceanic art – the spectacular La-Sisi canoe. This fine piece will be familiar to many Australian […]
Interview with Jim Elmslie, at the NGA Myth + Magic Exhibition, Canberra, August 7 2015 JE – Andrew, you have come a long way from a village in Dagua, and Wewak, to Cambridge University and now on to one of the highest positions in PNG administration, Director of the National Museum and Art Gallery. How did […]
By Barry Craig This mystery object has been donated to the South Australian Museum. The donor obtained it at a bric-a-brac shop so knew nothing about its provenance. It is 41 cm long, the handle is a heavy hardwood 5 cm diameter, the diorite stone is socketed into the handle and is not an axe […]
In this edition of the OAS Journal we read the story of George William Mostyn, the third in Barry Craig’s series of short biographies on early collectors for the South Australian Museum. We really must applaud Barry for this magnificent contribution to our knowledge of how so many of the important artefacts in our public […]
The world is becoming ever smaller, driven mostly by the increasing interconnectivity provided by the internet. People anywhere can research and access the most obscure and idiosyncratic alleyways of human endeavour. This is certainly true in the world of Oceanic art where auction houses online catalogues now are viewed all around the world. The quality […]
It is with great satisfaction that we can announce that the OAS Journal is finally to join its peers in cyberspace. The OAS Committee, after protracted discussion, has decided to place the full version of back copies of the Journal on the new website constructed by web designer, Andrew Drane. Editions of the Journal for […]
