Australia and Papua New Guinea share a number of important social, cultural, and historical features, making a sustained comparison between the two especially productive. This situates the ethnography of the two areas within a comparative framework and examines the relationship between indigenous systems of knowledge and place - an issue of growing concern to anthropologists. The essays demonstrate the manner in which regimes of restricted knowledge serve to protect and augment cultural property and the proprietorship over sites and territory; how myths evolve to explain and culturally appropriate important events pertaining to contact between indigenous and Western societies; how graphic designs and other culturally important iconic and iconographic processes provide conduits of cross-cultural appropriation between indigenous and non-indigenous societies in today's multicultural nation states.

“The great value of [this work] is the uniformly high quality of papers and their revelation of contemporary trends in Oceanic art research.” —Ethnoarts

Contributors explore the complex relations among Pacific artists, patrons, collectors, and museums over time, as well as the different meanings given to art objects by each.

The Fifth International Symposium of the Pacific Arts Association, titled "Art, Performance, and Society," called for papers in sessions dealing with "Production and Performance," "Social and Cultural Context," "The Record and the Remainder," and "The Mission of Museums." In all, some sixty papers were presented, twenty-four of which have been included in this book. The first two topics elicited several papers that explored the creative process, including the description and analysis of performance, and the taxonomy of objects used, the transmission of cultural knowledge, and the identity and work of individual artists. The second two topics provided the opportunity for papers on some significant early museum collectors and collections, various methods of documenting cultural material (such as photography), how cultural material has been and can be exhibited, and the role of museums and cultural centers in Pacific Island countries.

“Buk Baibel tokim yumi olsem yumi olgeta save mekim olsnti ol asua – tasol ol pasta em nogat wanpela as bilong ol long mekim. Ol asua em ol gat wei bilong ol yet long mekim yu go bek gen na i no long gohet. Asua ken stopim yu long gohet. Wanem kain ol asua em ol pasta ken mekim? Wanem samting bai inap long mekim 10pela bikpela asua bilong pasta? Yu ken ritim dispela gutpela buk na yu yet ken painim aut long 10pela bikpela asua we yu stap long mak bilomng mekim nah au long abrusim bikpela asua we pasta bai klostu mekim long en. Dispela bikpela buk bai wanpela blesing long yu na long ministri bilong yu.”

Em bikpela samting long save long ol liklik samting bilong salvesen na lainim ol ki we bosim niupela laip bilong ol. Ol Ki Samting long ol Niupela Bilip Manmeri em long lukim dispela nid na mekim wanpela strongpela pos bilong niupela Kristen long wokabaut wantaim win long niupela bilip bilong ol.

Mak bilong God em bikpela ki we yu nidim long opim dua long mekim gut long laip na mekim wok ministri stret. Planti manmeri bin traim long mekim wok bilong God long gutpela bel na i no save go longwe long wanem, ol i no luksave olsem em “Yu no inap mekim wok long strong bilong ami o long strong bilong yu yet. Nogat. Strong bilong spirit bilong mi bai i stap wantaim yu, na long dispela strong tasol bai yu mekim wok” [Sekaraia 4:6] Dispela gutpela buk, “Yu mas kisim Mak/anointing” bilong Bisop Dag Heward-Mills bai skulim yu long hau long yu mas kisim mak bilong God! Larim laikim bilong mak bilong God kirap long bel bilong yu insait long dispela buk!