Dancing the Society: Performing Arts in the Solomon Islands

Performing arts in the Solomon Islands Since the common determining facts in whether to keep, add changes, or reject aspects of the performing arts are based on the dollar, Solomon Islanders will continue to adopt new styles of dances, music, songs and forms of acting in the same way as some Church groups have done.

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Maori Film Images and Intellectual Property Rights - A Breakthrough?

For those depositing films with a significant Maori content, the New Zealand Film Archive has developed a Deposit Agreement which acknowledges that named Maori guardians have spiritual guardianship authority over their image treasures in perpetuity. This goes way beyond white copyright regimes.

Barry Barclay

Nucleus: Feeling Compromised

As Judy Watson was about the commence her residency in France, the French Government announced they would be conducting nuclear tests in the Pacific. As an Australian, an Aboriginal, a conservationist, a woman and an artist, she felt compromised. Discusses her work in this context.

Judy Watson

Fiji: Artists Carve Out Their Own Future

Looks at issues in contemporary art practice in Fiji anticipating the construction of the new Fiji National Art School.

Nelson Salesi

Pacific Wave: A Festival of Pacific Arts

Brief article outlining Pacific Wave, a celebration and investigation of contemporary trends in art and cultural life of the Pacific taking place across Sydney November 2-17 1996.

Stephanie Britton

The Waka and the Cattle Truck

What do a traditional Maori canoe (waka) and a cattle truck have in common?...In both these cases these vehicles were conveyors of culture. These images are central to two collaborative works at the second Asia Pacific Triennial of Pacific Art at the Queensland Art Gallery.

Margo Neale

Alternative Festival in Samoa

An alternative festival celebrating the people of the Pacific was held on one of the outer islands (Manono) in Western Samoa at the same time as the official Pacific Festival of the Arts in Apia. The festival was conducted from 8-23 September 1996.

Megan Tamati-Quennell

Art and Ritual: Aina Asi A Mavaru Kavamu

The artist writes of the issues facing her as a citizen of Papua New Guinea, a descendant of the Motu Koita people, being female and an artist/textile designer. Her traditional grass skirts were included in the Asia-Pacific Triennial.

Wendy Choulai

Pacific Stories from New Caledonia

Collecting Pacific Art is not a straight forward endeavour. There are really no set criteria of what 'contemporary Pacific art' might be, little interpretive literature on the subject and very few precedents for forming even small collections for cultural institutions. There is a new cultural centre 'the Jean-Marie Cultural Centre' being built in Noumea, New Caledonia.

Susan Cochrane

The Island Race in Aotearoa

Today the art of the Pacific Islanders is still trapped within its category. The display cases of the institutions have not been shattered. Yet the very act of exhibiting demonstrates that the making and the appreciation of art is a dynamic process. Institutions are caught by a need to both legitimise themselves and acknowledge (and perhaps attempt to control) the art of the migrant communities.

Jim Vivieaere

Neo-colonialist Precipice

Exhibition review Secret Places Sieglinde Karl, Hazel Smith, Kate Hamilton, Ron Nagorka Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Touring regional Australia through Contemporary Art Services Tasmania and the national Exhibitions Touring Scheme.

Jane Deeth

Tandanya - Captivating Culture

Brief overview of the current focus of Tandanya the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute in Adelaide, South Australia.

Stephanie Britton

The Contemporary Highland Shield: Hybrid Forms in Papua New Guinea

The author examines shield collected in 1995 to discuss issues fundamental to the introduction of the art of emergent societies in an international art context. Issues such as the definition of art and aesthetics, art versus craft, function of art in the various contexts etc...

Hugh Stevenson

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