Bilas in the White Cube

Across Australia, there has been a wave of 2025 exhibitions focused on Papua New Guinea (PNG) arts practices in celebration of the country’s 50th year of Independence.

Since departing from Australian colonial administration in 1973 and gaining full independence in 1975, the perception of PNG in Australia has been characterised by a ‘forgetting’ of our connectedness and shared history.¹ A significant amount of PNG cultural material is held in Australian museums because of this history, and exhibitions of this material are framed around the geographical proximity to Australia, time before or after Independence, or via cultural groupings.

Of the various exhibitions that took place across Australia this year, the National Gallery of Australia’s (NGA) Bilong Papua New Guinea can be used as a discussion to demonstrate the need to reframe PNG collections and milestone shows within Australian museum institutions. To this reviewer, the NGA’s presentation of its PNG collection works perpetuates a view of PNG that is stuck in a colonial gaze that has defined PNG-Australia relations in the colonial and post-Independence period. This lens is reductive to the artworks and cultural material, and deserves to be reinterpreted for future PNG exhibitions in museums and galleries globally.²

Boasting “the largest collection of Papua New Guinea urban art outside the country,”³the NGA sets an expectation for a captivating display. Though, what is presented lacks dynamism in its representation of PNG cultural material and contemporary arts. Displayed in an upper gallery of the building, the exhibition felt confined in both its size and the scope of display. Taking a loosely chronological narrative to the presentation, this approach suggests a notion of linear progression in the presentation of PNG artistic expression.

The opening work The Ambum Stone is the oldest in the exhibition, and one of the earliest examples of carved stone from the Great Ocean (Pacific), dated to c.3500 years prior. Humble in size and gracefully carved, it is a sacred object belonging to the Engan people, used for either religious purposes or as a mortar and pestle. The object’s story outside of PNG is one of colonial opportunity: being removed from Enga Province in the 1960s, making the rounds of the international art trade, before eventually entering the NGA’s collection.⁴ This information was left out of the exhibition or didactic texts and its omission implicates the NGA in continuing this colonial attitude through the interpretation of its collection works. Given the significance of this work, the NGA gives no attempt to address this fraught history, where they instead choose to sweep over what it means to be in the care of a work like The Ambum Stone. Displaying it alongside prime examples of PNG’s art and material history sets the tone of exotification of PNG’s creative arts for the rest of the exhibition.

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Moving further around the room, a hodgepodge presentation of ceremonial objects are displayed alongside contemporary artistic expressions. One example is the 19th century Telum [ancestral figure] belonging to the Anjam people of Madang Province, likely made for ceremonial feasting and displayed on a central plinth. As described by the exhibition’s curators on the accompanying wall label, this figure was displayed in an Asatal (men’s cult house). It is assembled with other sculptural objects, including a contemporary vase by Gickmai Kundun titled Wantoks [my friends] (1995), depicting a family sculpted into the vessel. Although the choice to display the works next to each other shows a range of craftsmanship from PNG, it emphasises a ‘curiosity cabinet’ nature to their presentation and does not enliven the spirit of the objects. Further still, a cabinet is displayed next to this plinth, again reinforcing this idea with a variety of objects with different functions displayed.

There is an instance where the works faintly suggest a chronological progression of style in the contemporary PNG arts, evident in shields. Yuriyal Eric Bridgeman’s Kuman (shield) paintings (2018) stands strongly adjacent to Kaipel Ka’s Six to six shield. In view of each other, these works together present a strong visual narrative of power, individuality, and, importantly, a contemporary representation of a Highlands fighting implement. Ka’s Six to six shield, likely utilising a found shield, appropriates colours and motifs from mass-produced manufactured goods. Bridgeman’s shields, made on plywood with house paints, feature strong graphic designs that pertain to a self-expression of the artist, which, although different, demonstrates a cohesive visual story. Both Ka and Bridgeman’s shields display the resourcefulness of contemporary artists in PNG and their creativity in extending upon the traditions of their cultural craft.

The lack of female-identifying artists was a disappointing oversight of the exhibition. Although there are single works by Elisabet Kauage, Gazellah Brudah and female ancestors, the exhibition is still dominated by the 
well-storied men of PNG contemporary art. PNG society is suffering from the dominance of patriarchy and it would have been particularly poignant to include more recent developments of female artists addressing these issues in present times, such as the late Joyce Mary Savinaja Gole OL, Florence 
Jaukae-Kamel, or Lisa Hilli.⁵ This lack of inclusion blatantly points out this collection deficit of the NGA.

Contemporary prints also featured extensively in the exhibition, the most compelling of which are imbued with the mixed feelings that Independence brought to PNG people.⁶ David Lasisi’s My Name (1976) is a self-portrait where half his face is depicted in shadows, along with a malagan mask from his New Ireland homelands. Combined, this work highlights a search for identity living in the burgeoning capital of Port Moresby at the time of Independence. This work gives a glimpse into the feeling of the generation that was to build the new nation and the complexities of the future, whilst connecting to tradition. There was a missed opportunity with a work such as Lasisi’s, to reflect on what 50 years of Independence means, and what role Australia’s national gallery plays in celebrating and reflecting on PNG’s past and future.

Instead, Bilong Papua New Guinea opts for the same story retold for this milestone with uninspiring museum display logics to convey the ‘story’ of PNG.