Oceanic Art Society Forum XIV

The Oceanic Art Society will be holding its Fourteenth Forum on Saturday 14 November 2026 in conjunction with the opening of Billy Missi’n Waikan Thamai, a national touring exhibition presented by NorthSite Contemporary Arts in partnership with Torres Strait Regional Authority’s Gab Titui Cultural Centre  (TSRA), and toured by Museums & Galleries Queensland.

Forum Title: Art and Material Culture of the Torres Strait Islands
Date: Saturday 14 November 2026
Location: Burrinja Cultural Centre, 351 Glenfern Rd, Upwey, Victoria

BOOK YOUR FORUM TICKET TODAY

Oceanic Art Society Forum Dinner

Oceanic Art Society Forum Raffle

Tickets are on sale now for this important fundraiser to help fund the costs of providing speakers and amenities at the OAS Forum highlighting Torres Strait Islands Arts and Culture.

First Prize – A Ramu River Mask, Personal Spirit Name Rikirmung Rempagian, Sepik Region, Papua New Guinea, ancient patina with bite stick showing multiple signs of use, old collection number CH256 and spirit names written in pencils on reverse. 50 x 17 cm Ex Richard Aldridge, collected Nimnim Village, November, 2004.

Second prize – $2000 Gift voucher for Mark Blackburn Art

Third Prize – War Art and Ritual: Shields From the Pacific. Two beautiful volumes, by William Nathaniel Evans.

BUY YOUR OAS FORUM RAFFLE TICKETS TODAY.

Oceanic Art Society Forum Accommodation

Two hotels in Dandenong have offered discounts to OAS Forum Attendees.

Holiday Inn Dandenong accommodation – use the booking link – 20%Partner Rate

Quest Dandenong Central promo code QDCNOV15BB – To book, go to questdandenongcentral.com.au

Click on “Have a promo or corporate code? Enter QDCNOV15BB

Select dates (up the top) which work from 11/11 – 17/11. (If someone wants to stay longer (or arrive earlier) email Aaron Rooke at [email protected] and he will extend the discount.)

Select the room you want. It should default to “Aarons Group NOV”.

Anyone booking on this promo will have breakfast included.  (Note: Breakfast served in restaurant next door on ground floor)

Oceanic Art Society Forum Keynote Speakers

• Dr Leah Lui-Chivizhe, a cultural historian of the Torres Strait Islands and Scientia Senior Lecturer and researcher at the University of NSW.Her current research focuses on how nineteenth century collections from the region can revitalise and reconnect Islanders with our pre-colonial histories of human and more-than-human relations and contribute to the decolonising practices of collector institutions. Her book, Masked Histories: Turtle shell masks and Torres Strait Islander people (2022), was highly commended for Australian History in the 2023 NSW Premier’s History Awards.

Meriam koskir: objects, stories and knowledge

In this keynote, Leah will reflect on her collaborative work with Aunty Elsa Day on ‘Meriam koskir: turdi a pe uridli’ for the exhibition, Fault Lines: Imagining Indigenous futures for colonial collections held in 2024-2025 at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge.

• Professor Ian McNiven, Research Professor of Indigenous Archaeology at the Monash Indigenous Studies Centre at Monash University in Melbourne and a Chief Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures. He has undertaken anthropologically informed archaeological research in collaboration with numerous Torres Strait Islander communities for 30 years. He is passionate about Aboriginal and Melanesian material culture and how ethnographic objects can help understand the deep past.

Framing the history of Torres Strait art

The historical development of European artistic traditions is well understood and critical to the appreciation of associated artworks. But what do we know about the long-term historical development of Indigenous artistic traditions? Indeed, how do we even frame such histories in the absence of textual records? This presentation explores how museum ethnographic objects and archaeological evidence can be used to help understand the long-term historical development of Torres Strait artistic traditions over the past 1000 years.

• Dr Jude Philp, Senior Curator, Macleay Collections at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney. Her education from people in Zenadth Kes was part of her PhD in social anthropology. With Anita Herle, Philp edited Recording Kastom (SUP, 2020) a publication of Haddon’s field diaries.

Art/History/Life: the collections of A.C. Haddon in Torres Strait. 

Haddon famously worked with the peoples of Zenadth Kes between 1888 and the 1930s, and during his major fieldwork in 1888 and 1898 collected thousands of Islanders belongings, commissioned those he could not purchase, and took hundreds of photographs. Stored mainly within the British Museum and Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, these belongings hold stories old and new, some personal and some public. This talk focuses is on the public side of the collection and those Islanders who worked closely with Haddon.

• Daniel Dow, Komet and Peibre Tribes of Mer, Murray Island group (Kemer Kemer Meriam), Project Officer, Repatriation Project at the Museum of Queensland

What’s so Secret about the Sacred? 

In story and song, Daniel Dow sheds some light on some of the more mysterious aspects of working with First Nations cultural material. Gain an understanding of the spiritual challenges our First Nations Team face in their work, and how you can support it.

• Theo Tremblay, Master Printmaker from Cairns, Queensland. He is a pioneer of collaborative printmaking and publishing, mentoring Aboriginal and Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait) artists in a range of print over many years. After studying at the Boston Museum School he continued further studies in printmaking at the Ruskin School at Oxford University, Prahran CAE, Melbourne and College of Fine Arts at UNSW) In 1977 he co-founded the Australian Print Workshop in Melbourne. From 1981 – 91 he taught drawing and lithography at the Institute of the Arts, Canberra and established No Fixed Press, printing collaboratively with artists since that time.

Going South, Looking North: Tracking Contemporary Zenadh Kes Printmaking

Theo will provide a historical overview of the evolution of contemporary printmaking as a major movement in Northern Queensland from the mid-1970s to the present current scale and complexity examining successes, weaknesses, opportunities, threats thus exposed.

• Adrian Newstead is one of Australia’s most respected authorities on Aboriginal art. He is the current President of the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia and has been a leading advocate for Indigenous artists and culture for over four decades. Adrian is a  former President of the Art Consulting Association of Australia and Director of Aboriginal Tourism Australia and was a founding member of the Austrade’s Visual Art Export Panel. The author of The Dealer is the Devil – an insider’s history of the Aboriginal art trade, he has written extensively on the Aboriginal art market and Indigenous cultural affairs for the press, publications, and other media.

The Genesis of the Contemporary Torres Strait Island Printmaking Movement

Speaking from his first involvement with regional art programs in Cairns in the mid 1980s, Adrian Newstead will talk about the initial funding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander printmaking and the empowerment of key pioneers of the movement, including Dennis Nona, Alick Tipoti, Billy Missi, David Bosun and Victor Motlop, to preserve their rich culture by drawing upon the ancient tradition of incised mark-making into turtle shell, wood, pumice, and stone, to decorate ceremonial masks, drums, and hunting tools. Adrian purchased the first printing press in the Torres Strait, which was used by Billy Missi and others in the Kubin community, on Moa Island. He initiated the Australian Art Print Network to market these and other Australian Indigenous prints to national and international audiences and assisted art centres like Moa Arts with the development of business plans. In 2009, he helped to revive the career of Ken Thaiday Snr and other Far North Queensland and TSI artists by initiating and funding the establishment of Canopy Arts – the multi-disciplinary art and printmaking studios in Cairns.

• Waku – Minaral A Minalay

Screening of David Bridie’s film about Christine Anu (10 mins) about the production of her 2024–2026 project, Waku – Minaral A Minalay, her first original album in 20 years. This follows their collaboration on her iconic 1995 debut Stylin’ Up.

• Billy Missi’n Wakain Thamai, official exhibition opening 

This is exhibition honours the late Torres Strait Islander artist Billy Missi (1970-2012), born on Mabuiag Island who was deeply influenced by the storytelling, song, and dance traditions of his Wagadagam Tribe. Beginning in earnest in the 1990s, his artistic journey combined traditional carving techniques with modern linocut methods, creating a unique aesthetic that earned international recognition before his passing in 2012.

Billy Missi’n Wakain Thamai is a national touring exhibition presented by NorthSite Contemporary Arts in partnership with Torres Strait Regional Authority’s Gab Titui Cultural Centre (TSRA) and toured by Museums & Galleries Queensland.

Welcome to Country / Smoking Ceremony

Song and dance performance by Peggy Missi and Maluilgal Dance Troupe comprising relatives of Billy Missi

Optional Oceanic Art Sunday Activities

Burrinja Cultural Centre

Billy Missi’n Wakain Thamai Exhibition – Curator’s floor talk with Russell Milledge, NorthSite Contemporary, Townsville

Workshop – Introduction to intaglio print – Print making workshop with master print maker Theo Tremblay

10am – 3.45pm

External collection visits

Malcom Davidson collection, private residence, Brighton

booking required

Neil McLeod collection exhibition, private residence, Tecoma

no booking required

Other venues:

Koorie Heritage Trust

Weaving the Everywhen: Connecting with Deep Country in the Present and Journey Among Men

Birrarung Building, Fed Square, open daily 10am–5pm

National Gallery of Victoria

Bark Salon and Wurrdha Marra (meaning ‘Many Mobs’ in the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung language)

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Fed Square,

Ground Level, free entry, open daily 10am–5pm

The Potter Museum of Art

Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the gum tree

Cnr of Swanston St and Masson Rd, Parkville, open Tuesday – Saturday – 11 am – 5 pm

Image: Installation view Billy Missi’n Wakain Thamai, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Bulmba-Ja Cairns, QLD, 2020.
Photographer Michael Marzik. Courtesy of NorthSite Contemporary Arts.