Oceanic Art Society XIII Forum – Papua New Guinea Art: Past, Present & Future

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Day 2, Gallery and Museum Tours

Join a tour of 1975 at the National Library of Australia with curator Guy Hansen at 10.00 am..

Explore highlights of the Bilong Papua New Guinea exhibition with former Pacific Arts Curator Danielle Toua focusing on the works on paper by women artists.

Hear Pacific Arts Curator Crispin Howarth present highlights of the Bilong Papua New Guinea exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia.

Drop into the National Archives of Australia to see some exhibits celebrating 50 years of Papua New Guinea’s independence.

Please contact the OAS for more information

https://www.oceanicartsociety.org.au/event/xiiith-oas-forum-in-canberra/

Last chance to see Stories Through Time at the University of Queensland Anthropology Museum in Australia.

https://anthropologymuseum.uq.edu.au/exhibitions/stories-through-time-living-cultures-enduring-connections

Oceanic Art Society XIII Forum – Papua New Guinea Art: Past, Present & Future

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Welcome and Acknowledgement of Country – Jim Elmslie, President Oceanic Art Society

Michael Mel – Papua New Guinea Art: Past, Present, Future

Anna Edmondson – Setting the scene – 50 years since Independence

Book Launch – Living Art: Papua New Guinea by Susan Cochrane – by Michael Mel

Eric Kjellgren – Country of A Thousand Faces: The Human Form in the Arts of Papua New Guinea

Chris Boylan & Caroline Sherman – The Bigger Picture: Local adaptations to global influences in contemporary PNG arts

Panel discussion – Evolution of PNG contemporary art – Deveni Temu at Independence / Lesley Wengembo today

Lani Auvita Scott – The Living Thread: Cultural Continuity for the Next Generation

Concluding remarks – Jim Elmslie, President Oceanic Art Society

Attendence is free but booking is requiured,

https://events.humanitix.com/oceanic-art-society-xiii-forum

Please contact the OAS for more information

https://www.oceanicartsociety.org.au/event/xiiith-oas-forum-in-canberra/

Dan Toua on the Papua New Guinean Bilum

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Join Dan Toua,for a closer look at the importance of bilum in PNG, as part of the exhibition Bilong Papua New Guinea, which he co-curated with Crispin Howarth.

This is a free drop-in event.Bookings are not required, but capacity is limited. Please arrive early to avoid disappointment.

See the NGA webiste for more information

https://nga.gov.au/events/dan-toua-on-the-papua-new-guinean-bilum/

Art Lab with Yuriyal Bridgeman, School Holiday Program

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Ages: 13 – 18 Free, bookings essential. Sessions on either Sat 11 or Sun 12.

Join multidisciplinary artist and designer Yuriyal Bridgeman for a workshop creating shield paintings as a form of self-portrait.

Further details and booking on the NGA website

https://nga.gov.au/events/art-lab-with-yuriyal-bridgeman/

Néprajzi Múzeum, Museum of Ethnography in Budapest, Hungary

As part of its participation in WanBel the museum will host an improvisational theatre performance in honour of the contemporary communities of Papua New Guinea, "What Our Ancestors Would Have Enjoyed".

https://neprajz.hu/en/hirek/2025/papua-new-guinea-celebrates-the-50th-anniversary-of-its-independence.html

October 11 marks one year since the museum opened in the new building and will be a day of celbrations and activities

https://neprajz.hu/programok/kozossegi-programok/stilus-ritmus-hagyomany-–-a-gyujtemenyi-kiallitas-szuletesnapja-1011.html

https://neprajz.hu/en/programok/community-programmes/style-rhythm-tradition-–-the-birthday-of-the-collection-exhibition.html

Note these events will be in Hungarian.

Art Lab with Yuriyal Bridgeman, School Holiday Program

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Ages: 13 – 18 Free, bookings essential. Sessions on either Sat 11 or Sun 12.

Join multidisciplinary artist and designer Yuriyal Bridgeman for a workshop creating shield paintings as a form of self-portrait.

Further details and booking on the NGA website

https://nga.gov.au/events/art-lab-with-yuriyal-bridgeman/

Join PNG artist Yuriyal Bridgeman for a talk about his work in the exhibition Bilong Papua New Guinea.

National Gallery of At, Canberra

This is a free drop-in event.Bookings are not required, but capacity is limited. Please arrive early to avoid disappointment.

See the NGA website for more details

https://nga.gov.au/events/artist-talk-with-yuriyal-bridgeman/

MARKK Hamburg, Germany

Talk on the PNG collection and reflections on 50 years of PNG independence.

Featuring museum curators, Nakni Nelly from the Siassi Islands and PNG artist Gazellah Bruder.

Nakni Nelly is from the Siassi Islands in PNG and has been invited by the museum to Germany to assist with provenance research on the sailboat collected from Siassi in 1910 by the museum and on display in the main gallery.

https://www.facebook.com/MARKKhamburg/posts/pfbid0DNvfWvfiU3NAg1rcXjYjVNzCwSS45B71C8zn9zuWsoGmy21BPgw1yiK97K4hVATxl

https://markk-hamburg.de/en/

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Art After Hours: High Colour

Celebrating 50 years of Papua New Guinea's independence

6pm DJ set: DJ Black President

6.30pm Spoken word: Lungol Wekina

7pm Drop in workshop: Weaving

7.20pm Panel discussion:

Lungol Wekina, Lisa Hilli, Tetei Bakic and Alana Hicks

8.20pm DJ set: DJ Black President

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/high-colour/

Field Museum, Chicago, USA

On September 17, Come meet Field Museum Collections staff Chris Philipp and Julia Kennedy as they discuss rarely-displayed masks, contemporary items, and media from the Field's Papua New Guinea collection.

Part of the regular series Meet a Scientist at the Science Hub

https://www.fieldmuseum.org/activity/celebration-of-papua-new-guineas-independence

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Bilong Papua New Guinea marks the 50th anniversary of Papua New Guinea’s independence, displaying part of the largest collection of Papua New Guinea urban art outside the country, held by the National Gallery.

Join us for a performance by the PNG Peroveta Singers of Canberra to celebrate this anniversary and the opening of the exhibition Bilong Papua New Guinea.

The PNG Peroveta Singers of Canberra will inaugurate the exhibition with Peroveta and traditional song and dance. Formed in 1999 by ACT diaspora community members, they specialize in Peroveta songs, prophet songs introduced by Polynesian missionaries in the late 1880s, as well as traditional Papua New Guinean folk songs and dances.

50 years of Independence Community Day is a collaboration with the National Archives of Australia for the Papua New Guinean community of the ACT and surrounding NSW and is open to all visitors.

Visit the National Archives of Australia from 9:30am to 12pm for curatorial talks, a performance, archival demonstrations and morning tea.

Visit the National Library of Australia to view the exhibition 1975: Living in the Seventies, which showcases Papua New Guinea's path to independence.

https://nga.gov.au/events/50-years-of-independence-community-day/