Reconnecting Bremen and New Ireland

For many years, Cairns Institute Adjunct Professor Craig Alan Volker has documented the language and culture of the Nalik people of Papua New Guinea’s New Ireland Province. For a month from 17 August this year, he collaborated as an intercultural advisor with a New Ireland traditional malagan carver, Adam Kaminiel, his apprentice Anthony Lupai, and colleagues at the Übersee Museum in Bremen, northern Germany in a provenance project related to the Museum’s New Ireland collection.

Many of the items in the collection are nineteenth and early twentieth century malagan carvings collected during the German colonial occupation of northern Papua New Guinea (1884-1914), intricate carvings specific to individual northern New Ireland clans that were, and in some villages still are, made to mark the malagan festivities at the end of a long series of events spread out over many years after the death of a clan member. At the end of a malagan, the malagan carvings have fulfilled their purpose and were normally burned. Because of this and the suppression of many malagan practices by Christian missionaries, there are no malagan carvings from the past in New Ireland. The only ones more than a decade or two old are in museums or private collections overseas.

The project brought the team from New Ireland to Germany to acquaint them with these items, many of which are unknown in modern New Ireland. Professor Volker said the project was a success, paving the way for future collaboration between German museums and New Ireland and, in doing so, strengthening the cultural awareness of young New Irelanders. Kaminiel agreed with this, explaining that it had always been his wish to go to Germany to see images he had had described to him by older carvers but that he had never actually seen. For the German museum curators it was an opportunity to learn more about the spiritual meaning of the objects in their care and to explore ways of helping more New Irelanders to reconnect with their cultural heritage. Plans were made to make images of the collection available online so the images are available to schools and individuals in New Ireland. During the visit, a Facebook page was started which carving apprentice Lupai is using to connect other young people with New Ireland items in the museum and make New Ireland culture and the German colonial involvement in Papua New Guinea better known.

At the end of their stay, the Museum and the team from New Ireland celebrated Papua New Guinea Independence Day on 16 September with a special event at the museum that included talks, a PNG cooking demonstration, and films.

Image (l-r): Anthony Lupai and Adam Kaminiel examining malagan carvings with retired Übersee Museum curator Dieter Heinze. Courtesy C A Volker