Oceanic Art Society

05/06/2026

[Conférence] L'EXPÉRIENCE COLONIALE PHOTOGRAPHIÉE

JEUDI 11 JUIN 2026 À 18H15
Agence de Développement de la Culture Kanak - Centre culturel Tjibaou
Entrée libre et gratuite (dans la limite des places disponibles)

Conférence de Isabelle Merle, Historienne, Directrice de recherche, CNRS, Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l'Océanie, Marie Durand , Anthropologue, Maîtresse de conférences, Université de Strasbourg, Institut d'Ethnologie et Christophe Dervieux , Responsable de la Photothèque du Service des Archives de la Nouvelle-Calédonie

05/06/2026

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM | Oceanic Blazing Forms: Memory, Place-making and Imagination

Tying in with the exhibition Time for Papua, Wereldmuseum Leiden hosts the 14th International Symposium of the Pacific Arts Association on June 23-26.

The symposium is part of a series of gatherings aimed at rethinking global art histories through the expansive and intellectual space of the Wereldmuseum, which challenges the structures and assumptions of both art history and anthropology through new approaches to material culture.

KEYNOTES:

JUNE 23 | Like a Tifa Drum: The Harder You Beat, the Louder We Become by Ronny Kareni.

JUNE 24 | Toi Te Mana: Understanding Māori art by Deidre Brown.

JUNE 25 | Blazing Voices and the Capacity of Song and Dance: Expression and Social Action in Oceania by Brian Diettrich.

JUNE 26 | Carrying the Line: Memory, Land, and Women’s Cultural Practices in Bougainville by Sana Balai.

🎟️ For more information and tickets see: https://ow.ly/jyQg50Z67Ii

02/06/2026

02/06/2026

30/05/2026

The latest edition of the Journal of Oceanic Art Society contains important new scholarship.

With a focus on PNG art, Anna Edmundson writes about the projects undertaken by the National Archives of Australia to connect their collections with PNG communities both in Australia and overseas with a focus on the preservation and digitisation of the F.E. Williams photographic collection (https://www.oceanicartsociety.org.au/living-archives-the-f-e-williams-collection-and-pngs-50th-independence-anniversary/). Living Art Papua New Guinea is also reviewed (https://www.oceanicartsociety.org.au/living-art-papua-new-guinea/).

Carved anthropomorphic figures of Pacific Oceania are known by the general term of tiki. Judy Robinson has provided a fascinating account of tiki in architecture. The introduction of Christianity in Oceania made links between tiki and architecture less evident in postcolonial era buildings as tiki carvings were intentionally erased from structures. However, in some places, notably Aotearoa New Zealand, the architectural presence of tiki has prevailed into the modern era (https://www.oceanicartsociety.org.au/tiki-in-architecture/).

Bill William George Rathmell has provided a review of the permanent Austronesian Hall in the Museum of Prehistory located in Taitung in the south of Taiwan focuses on Taiwan’s indigenous peoples’ own explorer settler history as the birthplace of the Oceanic culture that 4000 or more years ago began to spread over Island South East Asia and the Pacific (https://www.oceanicartsociety.org.au/where-taiwan-meets-the-world-contemporary-museology-of-oceania/).

Have you checked out back copies of the Journal yet?

While latest Journals are only available online to members, earlier Journals are available online (https://www.oceanicartsociety.org.au/category/journal-stories/).

We are a small group of volunteers who are supporting the appreciation of Oceanic Art both old and new. We are always looking for new members and new volunteers.

If you are not already a financial member of the Oceanic Art Society (OAS), please consider supporting the ongoing work of the OAS by joining today.

https://www.oceanicartsociety.org.au/memberships/

30/05/2026

30/05/2026

Melanesian Swag: Karl Nauer’s Photographs in the Colonial “South Seas”
Visual Essay
The Melanesian Archivist blog

An official ceremony was held at the Südsee-Sammlung Obergünzburg in April 2026 to mark the completion of six years of provenance research undertaken of the collection of Karl Nauer. At the invitation of Martina Kleinert, curator at the Südsee-Sammlung Obergünzburg who led the provenance research project, Tolai born, Papua New Guinean-Australian artist, museum professional, and researcher Lisa Hilli presented a pre-recorded video speech as she contributed to the provenance research as part of her fellowship with the German Maritime Museum and the North German Lloyd Colonial Research project in collaboration with Historian Tobias Goebel.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DXWs69kjCz6/?img_index=3&igsh=MXQ4c21yMXJtazI1Zg==

Lisa spent time thinking about maritime infrastructure of the Pacific and she was interested in who was looking after Nauer’s plantation on her homelands of Rabaul while he was busy serving as captain about the NDL ships, the Sumatra and later the Prinz Waldemar.

You may be interested in reading Lisa’s just published visual essay on a series of images that Karl Nauer captured of Melanesian men in Rabaul, as Lisa says, “they are like nothing I’ve ever seen before”.

https://lisahilli.com/2026/05/05/melanesian-swag/

Lisa Hilli and Tobias Goebel reviewing Karl Nauer's photo collection in Obergünzburg 2022.
Photo by Martina Kleinert

30/05/2026

How does the ‘South Seas’ and the ‘Allgäu’ go together?
Virtual Exhibition

Südsee-Sammlung Obergünzburg, Germany (online)

https://www.bavarikon.de/object/bav:BSB-CMS-0000000000013248?lang=en

This online presentation of the Obergünzburg Südsee Sammlung’s historical ethnographic Melanesian collection aims to make accessible and transparent this collection donated in 1913 by Captain Nauer, originally from the city. Working for the shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) in German New Guinea from 1903 until early 1913, Nauer was an active participant in colonial rule as a NDL captain, collector, and also plantation owner.

The virtual exhibition includes visual testimonies left by Nauer as well as documents on the history of the museum and some of the glass plate photographs taken by Captain Nauer. Importantly, the accompanying texts and object descriptions were translated into Tok Pisin by Tolai Australian and University of Sydney researcher, Steven Gagau (https://www.bavarikon.de/object/bav:BSB-CMS-0000000000013329?lang=en), whose speech at the opening of the Ömie barkcloth: Pathways of nioge Exhibition at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney in February 2023 is published in the Journal of the Oceanic Art Society (https://www.oceanicartsociety.org.au/omie-barkcloth-exhibition-opening-speech) and Acknowledgement of Cultural Objects and Ancestral Spirits at Australian Museum and Blessings of the Bilas: Body Adornment of Papua New Guinea Exhibition can also be read in the Journal (https://www.oceanicartsociety.org.au/acknowledgement-of-cultural-objects-and-ancestral-spirits-at-australian-museum-and-blessings-of-bilas-exhibition). This virtual exhibition was prepared in cooperation with the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (https://www.bsb-muenchen.de/en).

Group photo of the "Sumatra" crew, possibly 1905.

30/05/2026

This will be my final public exhibition in Brisbane for a little while 🌻🤍🇵🇬

30/05/2026