No.1 Neighbour: Art in Papua New Guinea 1956-2016

17 FOREWORD №1 NEIGHBOUR It was essential to include local voices in the project, extending to contributions to the publication from Kevin Apsepa, Nora Vagi Brash, Kiri Chan, Ruth Choulai, John Faunt, Martin Fowler, Taloi Havini, Florence Jaukae- Kamel, Gideon Kakabin, Joe Nalo and Waikua Nera. The project has been significantly buoyed by a singular contribution from the Gordon Darling Foundation. I hope that ‘No.1 Neighbour’ stands, in part, as a tribute to Gordon, who passed away a year ago. I thank his wife Marilyn, and everyone at the Foundation, for so generously supporting this exhibition. The Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade supported the commissioning of a Bit na Ta . The Gallery is most grateful for this support. We thank the lenders to the exhibition, among them Dr and Mrs AJ Armitage, Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Georgina and Ulli Beier, Eric Bridgeman, Aaron Choulai and David Tenenbaum, Helen and Paul Dennett, Ruki Fame, Martin Fowler and Megan McDougall, Taloi Havini, Fred and Lettie Haynes, Lisa Hilli, Ray Hughes, Wantok Musik Foundation, and Maxine Whittaker and Neville Smith. Many have also lent audiovisual materials to enrich the resource lounge adjacent to the exhibition. In a recent paper for the Lowy Institute, one of this country’s pre-eminent journalists in the Pacific, Sean Dorney, urged Australians to take a greater interest in our immediate neighbour — the benefits, he suggested, would be mutual. 3 Taking a closer look at the ways traditional and contemporary art have converged and evolved in Papua New Guinea is one way the Gallery can contribute to broadening Australia’s understanding of its number one neighbour. 1 Bernard Narokobi, ‘Development of contemporary art in Papua New Guinea’, in Caroline Turner (ed.), Tradition and Change: Contemporary Art of Asia and the Pacific , University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, 1993, pp.161–8. 2 Bernard Narokobi, quoted in Tradition and Change , p.163. 3 Sean Dorney, The Embarrassed Colonialist: A Lowy Institute Paper , Penguin, Melbourne, 2016. Installing the Brikiti Cultural Group’s Korumbo (Spirit house) 2012, APT7, GOMA, November 2012 / Photograph: Mark Sherwood