The vast and extraordinary collections from the Pacific, collected from the late eighteenth century onwards, that are dispersed across ethnographic and other museums in Europe amount to hundreds of thousands of artefacts, ranging from seemingly quotidian and utilitarian baskets and fish-hooks to great sculptures of divinities, architectural forms and canoes. Alongside the works themselves are rich archives of documents, drawings by early travellers, and often vast photographic collections, as well as historic catalogues and object inventories. These collections constitute a rich and remarkable resource for understanding society and history across Indigenous Oceania, cross-cultural encounters since the voyages of Captain Cook and his contemporaries, and the colonial transformations of the nineteenth century onwards. These are also collections of profound importance for Islanders today, who have varied responses to their displaced heritage, and renewed interest in understanding ancestral forms and practices.
This book, in two volumes, not only enlarges understanding of Oceanic art history and Oceanic collections in important ways, but also enables new reflections upon museums and ways of undertaking work in and around them. It exemplifies a growing commitment on the part of curators and researchers, not merely to consult, but to initiate and undertake research, conservation, acquisition, exhibition, outreach and publication projects collaboratively and responsively.
Volume two presents the scope of research activities of the project, with chapters focused around the following themes: materialities, collection histories and exhibitions, legacies of empire, contemporary activations.
Carreau, Lucie: - Lucie Carreau Is A Researcher Based At The Museum Of Archaeology And Anthropology (Maa), University Of Cambridge. Educated At The École Du Louvre (Paris) And Sainsbury Research Unit (Norwich), Her Work Focuses On The History Of Collecting And Collections In The19th Century And Early 20th Century And The Role Of Objects In Mediating Relationships Between Pacific Islanders And European Visitors.
She Previously Worked As A Researcher On The 'Artefacts Of Encounter' Project (2010-2011, Esrc) And 'Fijian Art' Project (2011-2014, Ahrc) At Maa, Where She Co-Curated The Exhibition Chiefs & Governors: Art And Power In Fiji (2013-2014).
Clark, Alison: - Dr. Alison Clark is a Research Associate at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge. She currently works on the ERC funded Pacific Presences project. Both her masters (2007) and PhD (2013) theses on the Indigenous Australian collections of the British Museum drew on the work of Anthony Forge. Her current research is focused on Kiribati, where she is interested in the contemporary resonance of historic museum collections, and the revival of certain cultural practices. She has previously worked on projects at the British Museum and the October Gallery in London.
Key publications:
2017, with Nicholas Thomas, 'Style and Meaning: Essays on the anthropology of art' (Leiden: Sidestone Press).
2014, 'What Happens Next? Sustaining Relationships Beyond the Life of a Research Project', Journal of Museum Ethnography, No.27.
2013, 'Eliciting a History, Reflections on a Photograph Album', in Adams, Burt, Bonshek, Bolton and Thomas (eds.) Melanesia Art and Encounter 2013 pp.64-66
Jelinek, Alana: - Alana Jelinek Is A Practising Artist, Exhibiting Nationally And Internationally For Over 25 Years. She Works In A Wide Range Of Media, Including Participatory, Film, Sound, Novel-Writing And Painting. From 2009 Until 2017 She Worked With The Museum Of Archaeology And Anthropology, University Of Cambridge, First As Arts And Humanities Research Fellow (2009-2014) And Then As Senior Researcher For Pacific Presences (2013-2018), Making Site-Specific Work And Responding To The Collections And Their Histories In Order To Explore Legacies Of Colonialism.
She Has Written On Art For The Journal Of Social Anthropology, Ethnos And The International Encyclopedia Of Anthropology, And Her Monograph 'This Is Not Art' (2013) Theorises The Discipline Of Art From The Perspective Gained Through Her Years With The Museum. She Is Currently Fellow Of Art And Public Engagement With The University Of Hertfordshire.
Lilje, Erna: - Erna Lilje Pursues The Idea That Collections Can Reveal More About The People Who Made And Used The Artefacts They Hold By Bringing To Bear An Interdisciplinary Approach That Combines A Close Examination Of These With Field-Based Research. She Believes That The Most Quotidian Objects Can Offer Insights Into The Lives Of Those People Least Represented In Historical Sources, Such As Women. Erna's Interest In The Physicality Of Artefacts, And The Processes Used To Make Them, Stems From Her Art Practice And Her Focus On Papua New Guinea Has Foundations In Her Own Heritage.
Thomas, Nicholas: - Prof. Dr. Nicholas Thomas was an undergraduate at the Australian National University from 1979 to 1982; his BA (Honours) thesis, on Fijian politics, was supervised by Anthony Forge. He visited the Pacific first in 1984 to undertake doctoral research in the Marquesas Islands and has since written extensively on exploration and cross-cultural encounters and on art histories in the Pacific. He has been Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge since 2006. Key publications: 2016, (with Maia Nuku, Julie Adams, Billie Lythberg and Amiria Salmond) Artefacts of Encounter: Cook's Voyages, Colonial Collecting and Museum Histories. Otago: Otago University Press. 2016, The return of curiosity: what museums are good for in the twenty first century. London: Reaktion / Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2012, (with Peter Brunt, Sean Mallon, Lissant Bolton, Deidre Brown, Damian Skinner and Susanne Kuechler) Art in Oceania: a new history. London: Thames and Hudson / New Haven: Yale University Press. Awarded the Art Book Prize
