Susan Cochrane – författare

This volume investigates Pacific collections held in Australian museums, art galleries and archives, and the diverse group of 19th and 20th century collectors responsible for their acquisition. The nineteen essays reveal varied personal and institutional motivations that eventually led to the conservation, preservation and exhibition in Australia of a remarkable archive of Pacific Island material objects, art and crafts, photographs and documents. Hunting the Collectors benchmarks the importance of Pacific Collections in Australia and is a timely contribution to the worldwide renaissance of interest in Oceanic arts and cultures. The essays suggest that the custodial role is not fixed and immutable but fluctuates with the perceived importance of the collection, which in turn fluctuates with the level of national interest in the Pacific neighbourhood. This cyclical rise and fall of Australian interest in the Pacific Islands means many of the valuable early collections in state and later national repositories and institutions have been rarely exhibited or published. But, as the authors note, enthusiastic museum anthropologists, curators, collection managers and university-based scholars across Australia, and worldwide, have persisted with research on material collected in the Pacific.

What represents Melanesian art today? Is there modern Melanesian art? Who are the artists? What are the subjects of their art? Art and Life in Melanesia is timely in its exploration of Melanesian artists and their voices, providing an important juncture for many in the region and beyond to take stock of what is happening in Melanesian art.The thirteen chapters are linked essays premised around major cultural themes including Kastom, Christianity, Indigenisation and Globalisation, Markets, Festivals, Diasporas, Urban Culture and Politics. Each theme focuses on ideas, issues and some specific arts practices, drawing examples from a few localities. Not every country is addressed under each theme, an approach that provides the reader with substantive country-specific information. Research for this book was supported by the University of Queensland.