Beyond the Future: Papers from the Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

room to move away from or manoeuvre the onslaughts of modernisation. Very little or no cognisance was given by the agents of modern isation to the underlying network of systems of knowledge and existence that were already there. With that history, the sense of confusion , anxiety and uncertainty prevailing in PNG can find some forbearance to a large extent. But this is not a way to make excuses in terms of any del irious conduct. I bel ieve that most Papua New Guinean people have ways of coming to terms with adversities . In those attempts, have people located a set of coherent values or guid ing principles to help them map out a space for themselves? That is my main question . I would like to th ink that the answer to that question is yes . However, I reckon that finding values and principles at a national level is a difficult task, if not impossible because the cultural complexities of PNG make it d ifficult to assume a pan-PNG set of values and principles. If we can accept this and in view of the time I have before you I would like to deal with one particular point in relation to my earlier rather hasty conclusion . I will provide smaller windows (some of which are in APT3) which may help to provide some ideas of how people are respond ing to and finding and negotiating routes for themselves in these times. The study of indigenous cultures and their representation at events like the APT have always been limited because the assumption has been that the objects under scrutiny or observation somehow reflected or represented the people. The problem (which really is related to the West's view of reason and knowledge) has always been to trace some kind of connection back from the object (be that a carving, mask, bi/um, painting or spear) to the person or social group who produced it. From an indigenous point of view I have difficulty with the idea that there is some sort of structural relationship between the idea of an ind igenous culture and the material . In fact when we talk about cultural identity or some similar idea it is quite easy and convenient to look at an object as the manifestation of that ideal . It seems straight-forward and easy to assume conceptually that the material I am wearing (feathers, beads, bi/um, shells) and the music that you are hearing ties me to being a Papua New Guinean. The scvTie could be said that when you see Daniel Waswas' three panels or Ruth Sari's bi/um, they represent Papua New Gu inea and perhaps more to the point a Papua New Guineaness. It is easy and accessible to operate in this way, to assign the labels to objects and indeed people. What I would l ike to suggest from an indigenous perspective is that you should not look at an art object and assign it a label . The point is to do with the view of how an object makes you or me a Papua New Guinean; or put another way, how the object adjud icates a Papua New Guineaness in you/me. In order to develop this line of thinking what you need to do when you see the objects or hear the music is to allow yourself not to assign a label; perm it you rself this once to let the colours, the shapes, the sounds to touch you and permeate you. Describe to yourself the quality of the sensations within you when you contact the obj ect. Do not tell yourself or someone else the objects in terms of the colours, the shapes and the sounds. Describe them from your experiences , from you r contact. Such ways of talking about contact, sensations and experience may seem threatening or make us tentative in our approach . Basically because we live in a world dominated by reason , things to do with sensations, experiences, feel ings, personal and physical contact, sweat and emotions appear very slippery and are viewed with suspicion . But to be able to begin to understand what it is to be a Papua New Guinean and sense that Papua New Guineanness, then you will have to allow yourself not to be fenced in by the ready-made labels. These labels contain you and therefore constrain your experiences of being a Papua New Guinean . So what i s Papua New Guinea in terms of a common set of values and p rinciples - in short, i n terms of its identity? You certainly will not find i t immediately in those images from Papua New Gu inea, although the labels may assign them in that way. That is not to deny Daniel Waswas, Ruth Sari, Lawrence Purtang or even myself as Papua New Guineans. You see when we want to talk about identity we are dealing with a term that is s l ippery. Again , when things are slippery we want to latch on to something firm so as not to hu rt ourselves. Taking that analogy further when we talk about a national identity we tack it on to objects. But I would say that identity is about a kind of experience. Identity is not a thing , it is an experiential process which can be sensed or intensely felt in the interaction between the person and 96