About the project

< Solomon Islands: Re-enchantment and the Colonial Shadow

This has been a collaborative scholarly project.

Since 2012 the Museum’s registrar and curatorial assistant for this exhibition Camella Hardjo has been working with Graham Baines and Evelyn Tetehu Baines to add some meaning to the poorly documented Solomons collection. Later David Akin visited in 2013.

David Akin is an anthropologist who has been working with Malaitans, particularly Kwaio people, over the past 37 years.  With his former wife Kathleen Gillogly he helped the Kwaio people establish the Kwaio Cultural Centre from 1979-1983, which included a Kwaio Arts project that encouraged the revival or proliferation of many Malaitan art forms.

Dr Graham Baines, Honorary Research Fellow, School of Social Science, University of Queensland, worked with Solomon Islands government agencies 1981-1989 during which time, through extended village visits, he developed a keen interest in Solomon Islander cultures and artefacts. He assists his wife, Evelyn, with the Santa Isabel Cultural Heritage Programme.

Clive Moore, an Emeritus Professor, has been visiting Solomon Islands since 1976 and in 2005 was awarded a Cross of Solomon Islands for his historical work on Malaita Island.

Honorary Associate Professor Annie Ross has worked in Marovo Lagoon for over a decade, documenting local cultural traditions and stories from the past and the present that link local people to their land and sea heritage.

Dr Diana Young is Director UQ Anthropology Museum/ Senior Lecturer. One of her research interests is re inventing ethnographic museums for the twenty first century. She has researched, co-curated and commissioned a number of exhibitions based around the University of Queensland Anthropology Museum’s Pacific collections.

Credits
Director of project research and curation: Dr Diana Young
Curatorial and research assistance: Camella Hardjo
Research consultants:
Emeritus Professor Clive Moore
Dr Graham Baines
Mrs Evelyn Tetehu Baines
Honorary Associate Professor Annie Ross and her research consultants
David Akin, independent scholar

With thanks to
Ben Burt, British Museum
Shirley Mwanesalua, curator, Solomon Islands National Museum
Lawrence Foana’ota, former Director of Solomon Islands National Museum
Oliver Lueb, Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum – Cultures of the World
Anna Craven, Foundation Director of Solomon Islands National Museum
Rebecca Conway, The Macleay Museum University of Sydney
Chantal Knowles, Queensland Museum
Jill Hassel, British Museum
Yvonne Carrillo-Huffman, Australian Museum
Members of SIIN network
The Edge-Partington family
Rosita Henry and James Cook University

Project management: Jane Willcock
Media arrangement, exhibition installation: Kiri Chan
Conservation: Kate Stanway
Additional literature research assistance: Sarah Webb, Jane Willcock
Photography: Carl Warner
Student intern: Alex Dwyer
Exhibition based on an idea by Diana Young