Curiosity about the Pacific
Oceanic art and objects have travelled the world from the “Blue Continent”. Along the way they have been traded and stories about them have embellished their reputations and attracted new …
Volume 27
Stolen God in Museum
Page five of the News (Adelaide, SA) on Saturday 3rd March 1934 featured the headline 'Stolen God in Museum' and this account of how and when the carved figure arrived at the South Australian Museum.
David Said (1945 – 2022)
Founding Newsletter editor for the Oceanic Art Society, David Said was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1945, the start of a long and interesting life enriched by his love of tribal people, their cultures and their artworks
Pacific Arts Association 2022 Conference ‘Gendered objects in Oceania’ – Paris, France
By Krisztina Turza. Gender was central to this conference commencing with Yuki Kihara’s ‘Paradise Camp’, New Zealand’s offering at the 59th Venice Biennale. This focuses on Fa’afafine (Sāmoa’s third gender) utopia – …
Oceans, Reflections, Collections
George Nuku’s presentation at the Pacific Arts Association 2022 Conference Review by Pierre Laffont George Nuku has become one of the best-known Māori artists due to his creation of a …
Magic Masks and Figures from Oceania
Leif Birger Holmstedt, Torso Publishing, 2021, 158 pages. Review by Jim Elmslie The strength of this book is in its excellent images, many previously unpublished. The images are mostly of …
OAS Tour 8 – 9 September 2022 – The museums in Rochefort and La Rochelle
By Pierre Laffont & Bill Rathmell. It is easy to fall for the peaceful charm of Rochefort and La Rochelle, two ports on the Atlantic Coast of France only a …
Segar Passi, meriba ged a gur (our land and sea)
Cairns Art Gallery, 8 October-11 December 2022. Review by Margaret Cassidy This comprehensive retrospective of Torres Strait Islander artist Segar Passi was an unexpected discovery on a recent visit to the …
Personal encounters with objects
Creators, curators, collectors, students, visitors, audiences all have encounters with cultural objects both old and new. The new can be a celebration of the old or it can be a …
Life in a Museum, Papua New Guinea style
Grace Vele, a/Chief Curator Anthropology, PNG National Museum and Art Gallery The Papua New Guinea (PNG) National Museum and Art Gallery [NMAG] is a world of its own with multiple …
Kevin Conru, Oceanic art collector
Interviewed by Bill Rathmell in Brussels, May 2022 BR: In 2003 you were interviewed by Tribalmania in Santa Fe (https://www.tribalmania.com/interviewconru.html) where you described your early career playing professionally in symphony orchestras …
Bruce Laurie Seaman (1926 – 2022)
by Chris Boylan Bruce Seaman will be remembered as a great family man, married to his beautiful Tahitian wife, Ramine, for 61 years, and as a Voyager and collector of …
Carnets Kanak, Voyage en Inventaire de Roger Boulay – Musée Hèbre, Rochefort
by Pierre Laffont As a local precursor to a similar exhibition being hosted later this year in Paris at the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques-Chirac, the exhibition Kanak Notebooks, Journey …
Hongi’s Hikoi: Tales through Tāonga
18 June 2022 – Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney. Review by Margaret Cassidy A highly successful project launch of Hongi’s Hikoi: Tales through Tāonga was held at the Chau Chak …
Mariw Minaral (Spiritual Patterns)
Australian National Maritime Museum. Review by Margaret Cassidy In recent years the Australian National Maritime Museum has used its Indigenous maritime curatorial team to build what some are regarding as …
Marquesan Festival Matavaa O Te Fenua Enata
July 2022. By Chris Boylan and Sophy Dennett The Marquesas with six main islands in the north-eastern section of French Polynesia has long been a place of imaginings, beyond the …
Uli: Powerful Ancestors from the Pacific
2021, 392 pages, Jean-Philippe Beaulieu, Primedia, Bornival, Belgium. Review by Noelle Rathmell-Stiels This superb book has been six years in the making, but it is well worth the wait. In …
Touchstones of Culture
Some cultural artefacts or events become touchstones of a culture. The elaborate masks prepared for participation in the Fire Dance Ceremonies of the Central Baining in East New Britain, Papua …
The Baining – A Night to Remember Part 2
Baining collection with field notes and photographs from East New Britain, continued from last issue. By Harold Gallasch Years of witnessing the Engini fire dance ceremonies of the Central Baining have made …
Murlapaka – A Kaurna Touchstone for the Art Gallery of South Australia
by Jim Elmslie At times, the landing page of the website of the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) features an extremely rare and culturally significant shield which also now …
Dr Dolly Guise PhD (1942 – 2022)
by Chris Boylan with the input of Dolly Guise’s family Dolly Guise, who graduated as Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) first female PhD in anthropology, lived an extraordinary life. Just as …
Adrienne Kaeppler (1935 – 2022)
Adrienne L. Kaeppler – an inspiring journey of discovery into Tongan culture, art, society By Mary Lyn Fonau Eminent scholar and great friend of Tonga, Adrienne L. Kaeppler died in …
Eric Coote (1941 – 2022)
Personal reflections from Crispin Howarth Eric and I first met when he visited Melbourne around 2001 or 2002. We met on Chapel Street and over lunch we spoke of nothing …
Bark Ladies: Eleven Artists from Yirrkala
by Margaret Cassidy This recent exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria shows the works of eleven Yolŋu women artists. The works combine traditional fine lined detail on bark with …