2024 Grainger Symposium: Music and Pasefika Cultural Collections

Bula! Talofa lava! Noa’ia! Mauri ora! Halo olgeta! Kia ora! Fakaalofa lahi atu! Ia Orana! Malo ni! Kia Orana! Aloha and Warm Pasefika Greetings!

The Grainger Symposium 2024 will promote, share and acknowledge the mana of music and song in Pasefika/Oceanic cultures and connections to Pasefika archival collections. We welcome presenters from Pasefika communities and academic institutions to join us as we tokstori and talanoa together. Mahalo nui loa.

Hosted by the Grainger Museum, in partnership with Melbourne Museum, the Melbourne Oceania Institute (University of Melbourne) and supported by Pacific Island Creative Arts Australia Inc. (PICAA).

PROGRAM - Please register for one or two days at check out

Day 1: Thursday 5 December 2024
VENUE: Grainger Museum

2:00pm – 4:00pm :  EVENT 'Pasefika at Grainger' – Learn about the Pasefika objects in the Grainger Collection with Rita Seumanutafa-Palala, 2024 Grainger Creative Research Resident.

Friday 6 December 2024
VENUE: Melbourne Museum, Theatre

10:00am – Registration

10:15am – Welcome – Rita Seumanutafa-Palala

10:30am – Archived Sound and Creative Engagements with Papua New Guinean Cultural Heritage in Australia – Amanda Harris, Deveni Temu, Steven Gagau and Jodie Kell

11:00am – The SA/MOA project – Grace Vanilau

11:30am – Great Ocean Volumes – Nadeem Esiraghi and Ripley Kavara

12:00pm – 1:00pm LUNCH BREAK

1:00pm – Fati lologo: Gifted Musicians as Niue Culture Carriers – Tamm Kingi-Falakoa

1:30pm – Searching for Meaning in Archival Pese (Song) Collections – Rita Seumanutafa-Palala

2:00pm – AFTERNOON TEA BREAK

2:30pm – KEYNOTE LECTURE – Collaborations: Working with Pacific Collections – Steven Gagau

3:30pm – PERFORMANCE tbc

4:30pm – END

ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM

Percy Grainger (1882–1961)—the composer and performer who founded the Grainger Museum (located in Melbourne/Naarm)—was an avid collector, acquiring a number of objects from the Pacific region, both through dealers in Australia and on his travels in the area. These collections demonstrate the colonialism of early-twentieth-century European collecting practices. But they also reflect Grainger’s enthusiasm for the music and art of this region. This conference aims to interrogate the challenges and opportunities presented by working with this, and similar collections, in the twenty first century.

Questions? Please email Rita Seumanutafa-Palala at rita.sp@unimelb.edu.au or Sarah Kirby at kirby.c@unimelb.edu.au

Fa’afetai (Thank you)
Rita Seumanutafa-Palala, Symposium Convener 2024

Image: Pasefika Vitoria Choir. Photo: Pacific Island Creative Arts Australia Inc. (PICAA), 2018