New-look museum re-opens
This year is shaping up to be a boom year for the new-look PNG National Museum and Art Gallery (NMAG). Visitor numbers have been on the rise since the museum re-opened in October.
The refurbishment has been designed to ensure the museum remains a source of pride as the country’s leading cultural institution, according to director, Andrew Moutu.
The museum re-opened just before the APEC leaders’ meeting last year and an estimated 3000 people went through the refurbished building in its first month.
Moutu says the new look is modern, fresh and comparable to museums and galleries around the world.
“The upgrade has come at a time when we are moving forward as a nation, and can offer Papua New Guineans and international visitors a dynamic space to learn about our history and culture,” he told Paradise.
All 22 PNG provinces are represented, with items chosen from the anthropological, archaeological, natural history, war relics and contemporary art collections.
The NMAG was built in 1975 and opened to the public in 1977. Its earliest collection dates back to the 1800s from the Papua administration of Sir William MacGregor.
“The latest renovations have taken 10 months of incredible effort, as the conservation team had to remove, store and ensure the conservation of all the objects previously displayed, in parallel with the building works,” says Tamzin Wardley, corporate and business services manager at the museum.
The project involved refurbishing four of the museum’s five gallery spaces and the external entry area.
“Our intention was to reveal the qualities of the original building by stripping the spaces back to the original and then only adding in new materials where needed,” says Stephanie Donigi, a designer from Brisbanebased architect company, Architectus.
Some objects were fixed in place and the building teams have had to work around them as layers of old paint and crumbling cement were peeled away to bring the gallery spaces back to their original format.
In honour of the original vision for the museum as an authentically indigenous
institution, the five galleries are named after cultural identities: Susan Karike (the 15-yearold who designed the national flag), Tumbuna (ancestors), Bernard Mullu Narokobi (lawyer, politician, activist and lay churchman), Be Jijimo (named after a legend advising people to remain vigilant) and Ian Saem Majnep (a pioneering PNG scientist, ethnobotanist, ethnozoologist and archaeologist).
One of the museum’s highlights is a display from Kuk, in the Western Highlands. This World Heritage listed site has evidence of the world’s earliest known human agriculture.
The upgrade – funded by the Australian Government – also brought in new electrical systems, air conditioning and fire systems.
A strong focus of the museum is to encourage local visitors to come view their heritage and understand cultures from across PNG, other than their own.
The Australian high commissioner, Bruce Davis, says the museum is a symbol of the shared history and connection Australia has with PNG.“We are pleased to continue this support with the refurbishment of the museum’s gallery spaces and external entry areas to ensure the culture and history of the nation is accessible for all.”
Moutu says the next step is to digitise the collection to allow greater accessibility.
“Our galleries showcase some 700 objects from our collections, but we have thousands of items in storage. NMAG is working towards digitising the complete collection so we can share our heritage with everyone and create new educational opportunities.” The museum’s longest-serving employee is chief conservator Francis Bafmatuk, who joined the museum in 1971 as a high-school graduate, after stowing away to Port Moresby via Rabaul on a copra ship.
In 1973, he studied conservation at the Australian Museum in Sydney and has been a passionate conservator ever since.
The latest renovations have taken 10 months of incredible effort.