What a wonderful time we have had with community and institutional events to mark the 50th anniversary of independence of Papua New Guinea. As I write this, we are looking forward to the thirteenth Oceanic Art Society Forum held at the National Gallery of Australia in conjunction with the exhibition Bilong Papua New Guinea: Reflecting on 50 years of independence and following on from the Sydney Oceanic Art Fair.
This edition of the Journal is filled with important new scholarship. The second in Judy Robinson’s series of articles on the history of the tiki is published, this one focusing on mapping tiki across Pacific Islands settlement. From the United Kingdom, Stéphane Duckett has written of the process of identifying two Massim objects that he considers to be previously unattributed Mutuaga spatulas that he encountered at the Derby Museum and Art Gallery.
Some photographs are shared of some highlights of the Bilong Papua New Guinea: 50 Years of Independence exhibition opening on 13 September which featured the PNG Peroveta choir. The PNG community day in Canberra also included a wonderful morning of talks and displays of PNG archives with Celebrating 50 Years of Papua New Guinea’s Independence at the Australian National Archives and the1975: Living in the Seventies exhibition at the National Library.
Noelle Rathmell-Stiels has provided a review of the new Arts of Oceania gallery in the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Sadly, we farewell Marina Garlick with an obituary from Rita Uetrichtz.
Margaret Cassidy
