2024 Grainger Symposium: Music and Pasefika Cultural Collections
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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.
In 2024, 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), will host the Grainger Symposium on 5 and 6 December 2024.
Registration is FREE but essential.
PLEASE BOOK YOUR TICKET HERE
PROGRAM
Thursday 5 December 2024
VENUE: GRAINGER MUSEUM (University of Melbourne, Gate 13, Royal Parade, Parkville VIC 3052)
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 (11 Nicholson St, Carlton VIC 3053)
10:00am – Registration
10:15am – Welcome – Shannon Faulkhead, Justice Nelson and 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, Lila Meleisea, Natalia Mann and Folole Tupuola
11:30am – Great Ocean Volumes – Nadeem Eshrāghi 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 Asalemo Tofete from PICAA
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