Connecting Papua New Guinea and Australia through the Arts – Lowy Institute 13 June 2018
The arts have unique potential to connect people and inspire new interest in a place and its traditions. There are thousands of years of indigenous history and culture in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
A workshop, Connecting Papua New Guinea and Australia through the Arts, was held on 13 June 2018 at the Lowy Institute, Sydney. The audio-visual project a Bit na Ta, developed by the Wantok Musik Foundation for the No. 1 Neighbour: Art in Papua New Guinea 1966-2016 exhibition with the support of DFAT, was screened at the reception. It is a project located in Rabaul, East New Britain, PNG, that engages with the enormous changes over the century 1875-1975 from the perspective of the Tolai peoples who inhabit the surrounding lands. A Bit na Ta features songs by leading Australian and Papua New Guinean musicians that transpose 100 years of Tolai history into contemporary beats.
![](https://pngaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Andrea-Williams-Lisa-Hilli-and-Steven-Gagau-at-Lowy-Institute-13-June-2018-Connecting-PNG-and-Australia-through-the-Arts-226x300.jpg)
Connecting Papua New Guinea and Australia through the Arts – Lowy Institute, Sydney 13 June 2018 L-R: Andrea Williams, Lisa Hilli and Steven Gagau
23 participants took part in the day long event. During the evening reception, Lisa Hilli highlighted several points of discussion including existing initiatives – the value of art in communication needs to be better acknowledged and valued, especially by elders; cultural appropriation – copyright and ethics. How are cultural designs managed? Protocols and infrastructure need to provide opportunities for misappropriated art to be re-dressed; and platforms for performing and sharing knowledge.
Lisa recently held an exhibition in Brunswick, Victoria. ‘Through video, photography, textiles and archival research, Lisa explored the impact and trans-formative affect that trade beads had upon her own people, the Tolai/Gunantuna, during a precarious and hostile era of the late 1800s, and how materiality became a language, which was understood and valued by all.’
This event, connecting PNG and Australia through the Arts, was held under the auspices of the Aus-PNG Network, which works to enhance the people-to-people links between Australia and Papua New Guinea.