Photography gallery, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney. Until 24 July 2022.
Reviewed by Bill Rathmell and Margaret Cassidy
Time flies and passes, and only our death manages to catch up with it. Photography is a cleaver that grabs a stunning moment in eternity
Henri Cartier-Bresson
This exhibition is jointly curated by Jude Philp of the Chau Chak Wing Museum and Stephen Gagau, a researcher of Pacific Island origin working in the University of Sydney on community-based cultural development. The exhibition was developed in partnership with Paradisesc, a multi-university approach to preserving endangered cultures and language of many small communities, mainly in the Pacific.
Stunning photographs from late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia are brought back to life through the contemporary voices, songs and poetry of Pacific peoples. It is a credit to the creativity of the curators that they have been able to turn this very small gallery and selection of original, mostly monochrome images and lantern slides into a place of mature reflection on current issues; and not only on the truth of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s pronouncement.
There are virtually no human figures in the historical images that were selected for the exhibition – the focus is on the diverse natural ecosystems and the living spaces recorded through the explorers’, scientists’ and colonists’ lenses. Above all, the emphasis of the images shown is on the importance of the ocean and of the environments of the small islands within it. Moana is the home of, and nurtured by, Pacific islander peoples. Through mixed media, accessible in the exhibition with a smartphone as well as via the link below, the voices and songs of Pacific peoples connect contemporary culture to the histories captured in the photographs.
One of the most prominent and colourful images on show is of a parade of whitewashed palm trees that looks like the driveway to a colonial residence. This is surely a clin d’oeil of the curators to the sometimes-surreal effects of colonialist endeavours on indigenous environments and cultures. Another, unenlarged, sepia tinted aerial photo of an oil-palm plantation – with serried rows of plants in an uninterrupted pattern – provides a more threatening visual counterpoint. Replacement of natural forests by palm-oil plantations is a present danger to some Pacific peoples’ environments, notably in west Papua.
Expressed in the poetry, there is the sorrow and anger of the communities about the cultural collision that the photographers recorded, alongside praise for the beauty of their home. There is fear about the effects of a rising sea, but there are also powerful assertions of cultural pride and resilience:
We belong to Oceania. We belong to a diverse sea of moving islands, peoples, cultures, languages, and ecologies. We belong to a legacy of navigation that teaches us how to read the stars, waves, currents, winds, and horizons. Pacific Islanders peopled Oceania thousands of years ago and developed complex societies based on the values of interconnection, harmony, balance, sustainability, and respect. We named and recognized the sacredness of waters and lands. We storied our new homes with songs, poems, and chants Craig Santos Perez, New Pacific Islander Poetry, 2015
This exhibition ambitiously attempts to link the Fijian talanoa processes of decision-making based on storytelling which removes blame and promotes learning through the ideas and experiences of all. It links contemporary ideas based on the oral traditions of Pacific peoples with photographs that document extraordinary changes to the landscape.
[…] So many of us come from water But when you come from water no one believes you. Colonisation keeps laughing. Global warming is grinning at all your grief. How you mourn the loss of a home that isn’t even gone yet. […] Terisa Siagatonu, 2018.
Some of the images are to be found in the exhibition website, as well as recordings of the songs and comprehensive presentations of the contemporary poets’ work:
As a result of the relatively quick preparation of this exhibition – another curatorial clin d’oeil – what is missing is a permanent record of the visual and written aspects of this multi-media exhibition. The dramatic presentation of a few images on the walls of the gallery draws the visitor’s attention away from the many fascinating original photographs, some still in their albums. A catalogue would allow these images to be examined in more detail, and reinforce the message of the poetry. Of course, this lack of a catalogue also opens up the opportunity for further exhibitions of these original photographs from the extensive Macleay Collection of historic photography, which contains over 7200 images of the Pacific region.
