Paperskin: barkcloth across the Pacific - Queensland Art Gallery

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Marsang
Papua New Guinea, b.1918
Kairak Baining people, East New
Britain Province
Siviritki 1974
Barkcloth, dye, felt pen, natural
fibre, wood and cane / Two
components: 160 x 45.5 x 50cm
(mask); 97cm (fibre) / Collected
by Harold Gallasch, 1974 /
Collection: Queensland Museum
The Pacific perspective on
the Queensland Museum:
tradition is present in the past and here in the present
Imelda Miller
barkcloth brings together sculpture, music, art, dance, ceremony and story. everything
in the ‘Paperskin’ exhibition is part of somebody’s story about their identity and
connection to place. The barkcloths and sculptures have their own stories, which exist
as the past, in the present and for the future.
in this exhibition we can liken the collected barkcloths to a favourite novel — albeit one
that is all middle without the beginning or the end, or all beginning and end without
the middle. Consider that the words from a wise storyteller’s mouth become the story
written on the pages of this book, dance and music become the beautiful illustrations,
and the ceremony is the experience of reading from it. sometimes, we go back to our
favourite pages because something in the present that has changed the way we think.
When we revisit those pages, there are always more lessons to be learnt about the
story being told.
Museums collect and preserve evidence in the form of objects and information about
them. in doing so, museums also collect parts of culture and build stories. Museum
collections tell us about the cultural and physical environments in which objects
originated, their many uses, and the skill, status and mark of the maker. As time passes
and attitudes change, more indigenous peoples across the world are accessing
collections held in institutions to reconnect and bring to life these objects to tell stories
about the person, the people, the community, and their connection to place in the past
and the present.
Queensland Museum has been collecting for nearly 150 years. its Pacific collection has
approximately 26 000 objects and 4000 historical photographs, and its large collection
of barkcloths display a balance between masculine and feminine, old and new.
Queensland is strongly connected to the people in the Pacific, particularly Melanesia.
Melanesia includes the Torres strait islands, Papua New Guinea, the solomon islands,
Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji. From 1884, responsibility for british New Guinea
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