After some years in the making, the Oceanic Art Society website is now up and running. This will change the nature of the organisation. While to date the primary mode of communication with members has been through the pages of this Journal, and previously the OAS Newsletter, increasingly it will be through the website and […]
Unpacked: The Reverend Fellows collection of Trobriands art
Public lecture by Crispin Howarth: Held at the National Gallery of Australia is a little known, rarely shown but very significant collection of Massim Art. Amassed in the late 19th century and for the best part of the 20th Century hundreds of objects lay hidden under a house, dozens of decorated clubs, piles of elegant […]
Behind the lens: Richard Aldridge and his Oceanic art series of short documentaries
Richard Aldridge has produced a series of short documentaries on the art and culture of Papua New Guinea. These can be viewed on Youtube (see below for web address). In this article Richard describes why he set out on this path and what he feels that he has achieved in his documentary, Malangan Culture and […]
Jude Philp on the Macleay Museum’s Pacific collections
Lecture to Oceanic Art Society, Sydney, 14 September 2016. Report by Jude Philp In 1875 Maino of Mowatta welcomed William John Macleay’s Chevert expedition party to his village, and introduced him to the neighbouring village of Tureture. The Chevert stayed nearly two weeks, as the various men of Macleay’s party and those of Maino’s village […]
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor – Part V
By Barry Craig. Continued from OAS Journal Vol.21 No.3. In this issue of the OAS Journal, I provide a short biography and a sample of the collections of: Walter Mansell Balfour Ogilvy and Harry Lort Spencer Balfour Ogilvy The two Ogilvy brothers from Renmark will be considered together but as Parts 5, 6. They both […]
Parcours subjective
By Krisztina Turza, TurzaArt Tribal Gallery A short and subjective review of this year’s Parcours des Mondes. Short, because it will only focus on the art items via the many photographs enclosed, as opposed to going through the usual ‘Paris stuff’ and the general socio-economics (yes, generally tourists were better off this year on the […]
War trophies or curios?
By Barry Craig, Ron Vanderwal and Christine Winter, Museum Victoria, Melbourne, 281 pp. Review by Peter McCabe “Me been talk with you now, now you give three good feller cheers belongina new feller master. NO MORE ‘UM KAISER – GOD SAVE ‘UM KING”. And with that the locals of Rabaul found out they were under […]
Andrew Moutu, Director, National Museum and Art Gallery of Papua New Guinea – Part II
Interview with Jim Elmslie, at the NGA Myth + Magic Exhibition, Canberra, August 7 2015 JE: How did you get to Cambridge? AM: I had some good mentors. When I was at UPNG I was told by two ex-Cambridge people, Colin Filer and John Mucki that I should go to Cambridge. One is British and […]
No End to the Splendid Diversity of Oceanic Art
However much Oceanic art one sees it will never be the case that there is not something new to discover. The vast array of Oceanic art that has graced this journal’s pages is testament to the splendid diversity of the field. That, in turn, is reflective of the huge range of peoples and cultures that […]
Centuries 19 to 21. The Macleay Museum’s Pacific collections
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 […]