In early August we gathered for the Oceanic Art Society’s 2024 Forum at the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney. This brought a rich and diverse set of presenters into one of the best contemporary museum spaces in Australia.
Keynote speaker, Professor Tarisi Vunidilo commenced the day with a lively presentation that combined personal experience and expert knowledge of her subject with irrepressible good humour and positivity. After the event, Jim Elmslie wrote, “this set the tone for the whole Forum and immediately the room seemed to be filled with old friends enjoying the pleasure of each other’s company, and learning new information and different perspectives on the artefacts and cultural practices, and history, of the Pacific countries”.
Her exploration and interpretation of ‘de-colonising’ Pacific collections — such as the renaming of Fijian artefacts in the New Zealand museum with their traditional nomenclature — reflected the dynamic process of cultural change and renewal that is underway across the Pacific. This also set the scene for Jude Philp to describe her approach engaging First Nations community members and curators when working with the Macleay collections and planning exhibitions such as Tidal Kin: Stories from the Pacific.
This collaborative approach between First Nations and allies acknowledging the cultural sovereignty of Pacific peoples continued throughout the day with European-based scholar Susan Cochrane and Michael Mel spoke from Port Moresby about the contemporary culture of PNG and Deveni Temu introduced the little known Hugh Stevenson Collection of artworks, sculptures, drawings and photographs at University of Papua New Guinea. Deveni is raising funds to ensure the collection is captured in digital form and made available to researchers.
Brent Kerehona Pukepuke-Ahitapu updated his personal journey of object research based on the history of his ancestor Hongi Hika while Rebecca Conway and Ronny Kareni talked about preparing for their upcoming exhibition working with materials from the Robert Mitton collection. Salote Tawale talked about her contemporary research practice working with the local Pacific art scene and researcher Steven Gagau from the PARADISEC digital archive spoke about working with Pacific audio-visual collections of language, music and culture.
This focus on how First Nations people are responding and rebuilding their societies and cultures is an evolution from previous forums where the focus has been on the artefacts themselves, rather than what they represent and mean to the original owners and producers.
While presentations from this year’s Forum will be published in later editions, the centrepiece article of this Journal is based on Eric Kjellren’s presentation at the 2023 Forum on Micronesian sculpture. While sourcing the images for Eric’s article from institutions in Europe and the United States, I noted the comparative progress in ‘de-colonising’ collections with differing descriptions for these objects, from including traditional nomenclature to the varying geographic names used. For example, the British Museum lists Ibedul or Abba Thule, Ruler of Koror in the Pelew islands (Palau), as the original owner of Figure 3 a beautiful wooden bird-shaped bowl and lid, inlaid with shell. Other institutions use Balau while atolls and islands seem interchangeable. Something to watch.
Margaret Cassidy
