The National Repatriation of Papua New Guinea Recordings: Experiences Straddling World War II

Abstract

From 1898 to the present, sound recordings have been made in Papua New Guinea by a wide variety of individuals and groups. Since 1979, the Music Department of the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies (a government institution concerned with cultural research) has been trying to locate and repatriate such early recordings to the country in which they were made. This paper provides an overview of the highly successful efforts that have concerned recordings from the earliest period of recording and some of the projects that have involved these recordings. This serves as an introduction to a number of collections, made between 1938 and 1955. These vary according to the location and format of the original recordings, the nationality of the collectors and their motivations for collection, the present-day location of the materials, and the efforts involved to repatriate them. Whilst not the earliest recordings from Papua New Guinea, these collections are often the earliest made in particular parts of the country and are of value in documenting traditions that had previously only been described in words. The collections were recorded on cylinders, discs and tape, reflecting the technology of their time, but these formats are now obsolescent or nearly so, a fact that affects where the recordings have ended up and their accessibility. Finally, I discuss the present and future uses of the collections we have been able to repatriate and how this work may affect the communities that were recorded.

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