‘Living Spirits With Fixed Abodes’

Normal, Weekender
Source:

The National, Friday 06th January 2012

SITUATED between the parliament house and prime minister’s official residence (Mirigini Haus) at Waigani is the National Museum and Art Gallery.
The museum is sometimes referred to as “spirit house, haus tumbuna” or as former Museum Director SoroiEoe described it, a “foreign unfamiliar concept” and place of forgotten relics.
This perception of museums being isolated with old and frail looking objects is changing as museums adapt to new innovative ways of operating as cultural institutions.
For the National Museum and Art Gallery, the launching of the masterpiece book titled: Living Spirits with Fixed Abodes, last month was a step forward in museum management.
The book truly gives readers the experience into the museum’s masterpiece exhibition of more than 100 objects in the public gallery. It took many years of research to put this incredible volume together for the National Museum.
Editor and author Dr Barry Craig took many years traveling between Australia and PNG gathering information to write this book Craig, a former curator of PNG Museum in the 1980s, now works at the South Australian Museum.
In chapter one of the book, he introduces the Melanesian cultural heritage as art giving the basis for the book.  In chapter five he takes the readers through the masterpiece exhibition showing different functional groupings of objects with photographic images of each object. One example is cult house gable finial, on page 63 attributed to Kanganaman village, Middle Sepik, Iatmul speakers. The figure was registered on Feb 9, 1966, but noted as in museum before that date.
Another former museum employee and now lecturer at the University of Auckland Mark Busse, in chapter two looks at the museum’s short history from the colonial collections to the establishment of the current museum.
In chapter three, he gives an account on the role and functions of divisions that make up the museum. Former museum director SoroiEoe covers the role of the National Museum in contemporary Papua New Guinea in chapter four. Eoe raises concern about negative perception about museums portrayed inMelanesian contexts, and raises issues where the museum can play an active partnership role with private-public in societal development concerns.
A quote from Chief Minister Sir Michael Somare before independence sent to the Pacific Arts Association meeting at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, states:  “We now have a National Museum and Art Gallery. This houses our heritage. Some of our most valuable pieces of artwork are outside our country. I would ask you all to co-operate with us in returning our ancestral spirits and souls to their homes in Papua New Guinea. We view our masks and our art as ‘living spirits with fixed abodes”. (Mead, 1979)
The contributors to Living Spirits with Fixed Abodes are former National Museum employees and are all well versed with the masterpiece exhibitions. All the writers have many years of research work among different tribal groups in the country.
Sir Michael who was the first national president of board of trustees after Justice Sir Alan Mann has long association with the museum since 1970 wrote the foreward expressing concern about the conservation, preservation and documentation of the rich heritage and the evolution of our art and culture in today’s rapidly changing world.
Sir Michael described the book as a snapshot of what is contained in our national museum.
“They are pieces of our past that tell our different stories going back many generations. A documentation of art, artefacts, traditional tools and spirit masks, a treasure that every citizen of this country should have in their homes.
“It is time to consider repatriation of our cultural material back to our museum, and this cannot happen if the Museum does not have adequate storage space for these artefacts,” he said.
Sir Michael said with stable leadership at the museum, government should consider giving it more financial support  to carry out these dual objects of both storage development and repatriation.
Living Spirits with Fixed Abodes gives an insight into the core of museum masterpieces and their uniqueness and relevance in a museum setting. This book adds history and development of museum collections as perceived by different audiences who interact with these objects.
The book gives new meaning and reflection on the role National Museum plays in society, and setting aside negative perception about its status as a cultural institution.
The photographic pieces brings out the spirituality in these ancestral figures to live again, reminding the younger generations and school children that learning their cultural heritage through dances, songs and ritual practices are part of our traditional way of life.
Acting director Dr Andrew Moutu gave reflection on the significance of the occasion as relating to a child being born, and the book from a publishing house is similar to the arrival of a child into a family.
“The book launches the future of the Museum, not as a historical event or as a museological accomplishment of the past but the watershed that should direct the future of the Museum.
“Museums are cultural and scientific institutions concerned with the retention and retrieval of national and cultural memories, their scientific orientation make museums become part of an international community of expertise and ethical commitments concerned with the management of collections and the politics of representing cultures in museums,” he said.
The book is being sold at the Museum Bookshop for K400 each for the hard-covered copies and K200 each for the soft covered. For methods of payment call the public relations office or anthropology department on phone 325 2422 for information.
Friends of the Museum who attended the launching last Sunday included the former curator of the Public Museum in downtown Port Moresby in the 1960s Roy McKay. One of his first national officers recruited at that time is currently serving the Museum as a conservator Francis Bafmatuk of New Ireland province. Other Australian friends who attended were Dr Robin Torrence from Australian Museum, Dr Judith Philip ofMcCay Museum based at the University of Sydney, Dr Michael Gunn from the National Gallery in Canberra. The publisher   Tony Crawford from Crawford Publishing House in Adelaide also worked tirelessly to publish the book.
The Ministry of Tourism, Art and Culture, National Museum and Art Gallery Board of Trustees, Managementtake this opportunity to thank the France Government for funding the Living Spirits with Fixed Abodes.
Major sponsors included Lamana Group of Companies, Airways Hotel,Hebou Construction, Nawae Construction, Pascoe Promotions, PNG Gardener, SP Brewery, Telikom PNG, Theodist, TNT and Spic-n-Span. And all the staff not mentioned who have contributed in assisting the researchers during the project.