The Sixth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

41 tok pisin (Papuan pidgin) to a Tahitian (Polynesian) audience who then sing the chorus to him — but perhaps this is simply due to this pan-Pacific star’s charisma and catchy tunes. Whatever the reason, Pacific reggae is traversing this ‘one saltwater’, creating a multitude of narratives about a region and a people who ‘stand up for their rights’ and who confront social, political and environmental issues when needed, but which also promotes the things that strengthen in the face of adversity — community, family and, of course, romance. Together, projects such as these continue to build on a conversation with the people of the Pacific that began in 1993 with the first APT, but which is now also maintained through this Gallery’s collecting practices and exhibition programming. 16 This dialogue is liberating for its open-endedness. Endnotes 1 Robin White: ‘For us — especially for Leba and Bale — it was a way of signalling our presence in that place, as well as representing the idea of growth . . . and the process of growth . . . it’s really about people and about growing communities’. Email to the author, 14 October 2009. 2 Okwui Enwezor, ‘Curating beyond the canon’, in Paul O’Neill (ed.), Curating Subjects , Open Editions, London, 2007, p.119. 3 See the Pacific Textiles Project featured in APT5, which displayed ibe vakabati as well as cloth textiles. 4 See Nicholas Thomas, ‘Our history is written in our mats’, in The 5th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art [exhibition catalogue], Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 2006, pp.24–31. 5 Refer to the work of, but not exclusively, Marcia Langton, Ian McLean and Nicholas Thomas. 6 Ian McLean, ‘Aboriginal Modernism in Central Australia’, in Kobena Mercer (ed.), Exiles, Diasporas and Strangers , Iniva and MIT Press, London, 2008, p.75. 7 Ruth McDougall, ‘Vanuatu sculptors: Innovation and tradition’, in The 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art [exhibition catalogue], Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 2009, pp.188–91. 8 Kirk Huffman, ‘Sacred pigs to Picasso. Vanuatu art in the traditional and “modern” worlds’, Art and Australia , vol.46, no.3, 2009, p.476. 9 Huffman also recounts that, as far back as the nineteenth century, the Ambrymese had discovered that the laundry bleaching solution Reckitt’s Blue when left to dry, then mixed, formed a brilliant ultramarine colour, which is echoed in much of the mague figures’ colouration. See Huffman, p.476. 10 As relayed to the author by David Baker, the donor of this group of works. 11 Called ‘sandroing’ locally; a key feature of this visual form of communication is that motifs are drawn directly onto the sand in one single movement. 12 South Sea Islanders are the Australian descendants of these ‘blackbirded’ men and women. 13 Marcel ‘Mars Melto’ Meltherorong video interview with the author, 6 July 2009, as featured in Pacific Reggae: Roots Beyond the Reef for APT6. 14 Brent Clough, ‘Pacific Reggae: Roots Beyond the Reef’, in The 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art [exhibition catalogue], Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 2009, pp.160–3. 15 For example, the national anthem is in Bislama, and there are over 100 vernacular languages in Vanuatu. 16 Most recently, and running concurrently with APT6, is the exhibition ‘Paperskin: Barkcloth across the Pacific’, a collaboration involving the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the Queensland Museum and the Queensland Art Gallery.