Qualla: Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery

Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0. "We view our masks and art as living spirits with fixed abodes. It is not right they should be stored in New York, Paris, Bonn or elsewhere." Prime Minister Michael Somare wrote those words in 1974, the year before Papua New Guinea became a nation. A purpose-built museum was rising in Waigani, a suburb of Port Moresby, and Somare was signaling what its walls would stand for. Some of those masks had not been home in nearly a century.

Image: Nick-D | CC BY-SA 4.0

Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery: A Collection Scattered, Then Summoned

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1889, the British governor William MacGregor began gathering natural history specimens and cultural objects from across what was then the British Protectorate of New Guinea. He imagined a museum on the island itself, but the idea lost momentum. The collection dispersed instead...

Image: Nick-D | CC BY-SA 4.0

Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery: Tumbuna, Bernard Narokobi, Be Jijimo

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0. Walk into the refurbished museum today and the galleries bear Papuan names: Tumbuna, Susan Karike, Bernard Narokobi, Ian Saem Majnep, Be Jijimo. That naming was deliberate. The 2017 refurbishment, designed by the Australian firm Architectus for the museum's 40th anniversary, trea...

Image: Nick-D | CC BY-SA 4.0

Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery: Kundu and Garamut

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0. The collections span music, ceremony, and navigation - objects meant to be used, not displayed. Kundu drums, shaped like hourglasses and played with the palm, accompany dances across much of the country. Garamut slit drums, hollowed from single logs, carried messages between vill...

Image: Nick-D | CC BY-SA 4.0

Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery: The Long Road Home

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0. Repatriation is slow work. Seventeen objects in 1977 was a start, not a conclusion. In 2006, questions arose about the legality of several Melanesian items in San Francisco's de Young Museum, and the conversation about how Papuan material culture ended up in Western institutions ...

Image: Nick-D | CC BY-SA 4.0