Present Encounters : Papers from the conference of the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 1996

I n the context of my story Mogei is not an entity, nor is it a template passed on from generation to generation. It is more a process of communication: it is a way of talking thi ngs to death . The very fact that I am talking to you, this communication process in a very raw form , is what I am aiming at. I am a Mogei but I am not talking to you in my Melpa language (mi nd you I could if I wanted to) . I am prepared to relinquish (temporarily perhaps) some of my Mogei baggage in this process of communication . It is I (both Mek and Michael) who have made the choice to do so. From this perspective we need to be in positions of malleability about thi ngs cultu ral. Mogei culture, indeed Papua New Gu inean cu ltu re , is not an autonomous and specific entity or a reflex of a particular text or model, but a continual process of dialogue and negotiation. What I wou ld l ike to suggest is that the many PNG art practices and processes today are steeped with a historical background that was hybrid in outlook. I ndeed Papua New Guinean artists and performers today have a capacity to engage and construct from the new infl uences with their own historical traditions to erect new sign-posts and re-route and re­ di rect old maps which lead to the reconfiguration of a new real ity and future. I n this world we share, globalisation seems a reality and cultural annihi lation is a real possibility. This annih ilation relates to the fact that the i nfluences of media and technology seem to deny any sense of ownership and control of our l ives - our culture . I ndeed our sense of power and access may be denied through clever marketing ploys. Small and comparatively far-fl ung villages and government centres in PNG are simply directing satel l ite dishes into the open skies to tap into a world dictated by the likes of CNN, ABC and Channel 9. We seem to clamour for Bart Simpson , and clap and cheer Jonah Lomu's rampaging runs through the Australian Wallabies backline. Our heroes seem to be the likes of Allan Langer and Mai Men i nga. There is now a real need for local artists to reassert, restate and .invent alternative voices to challenge the almost grotesque manifestations of the pre-packaged , commodified and consumerised global picture that denies difference. 55