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Event Date
Author: Rachel Hand

Context (Production / use)
Kauage (c. 1944-2003) was born in Chimbu Province in the Papua New Guinea highlands. In the late 1960s he was employed as a labourer in Port Moresby and was inspired by an exhibition of drawings by a fellow-Highlander, Timothy Akis. Like Akis, he was encouraged and supported by Georgina Beier. Together with her husband Ulli, Georgina influentially fostered contemporary art, theatre, and literature in Nigeria and Papua New Guinea. Kauage's work evolved rapidly. Early on he drew fantastic creatures inspired by Chimbu myth, but soon progressed to scenes of Moresby town life and political events. Embracing colour, he went on to produce major paintings around Papua New Guinea's Independence in 1975, aspects of colonial history, and his own experience - not least his meeting with the Queen, who awarded him an OBE in 1998. His later works were often signed 'Kauage - Artist of PNG'.

See also the 2005 donation of Kauage, Tiabe and Akis material from Strathern, and 2005.279, print 32/60, Independence Celebrations 4.

Event Date 21/4/2009
Author: Rachel Hand

Description (Physical description)
'Independence Celebration 4' by Mathias Kauage, (no date[1975]), 33/60, referencing Papua New Guinea Independence in 1975. Four people wearing feather headdresses are shown dancing in a truck decorated with flowers.
Event Date 21/4/2009
Author: maa

Context (Field collection)
Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern, William Wyseman Professor of Anthropology, 1993- 2008, Cambridge University, who conducted fieldwork in the PNG Highlands and in Port Moresby from the 1960s onward. Displayed in the donor's house.


Event Date 21/4/2009
Author: maa

Context (References)
Illustrated in Nicholas Thomas (2011), 'Melanesia Modern. In City Gallery Wellington (ed.) Oceania: Imagining the Pacific. City Gallery, Wellington, 5-56, 52, and noted as 'In 1975 he made two large paintings, entitled independence celebration (the present whereabouts of which are unknown) and a set of colour prints based upon them. These were the first of his works to depict a public political event, that he went on to do more featuring the funeral of an important Chimbu politician Iambakey Okuk. In the 1980s and 1990s he concentrated on large acrylic paintings some of which dealt with subjects in Pacific history brackets such as Captain Cook's arrival, which had loomed large in Australia, which Kauage how visited during the bicentennial year, 1988 bracket and current events in Papua New Guinea, notably the secessionist war in Bougainville.'
Caption: Mathias Kauage/ Independence Celebration 4, 1975
Screenprint, 522 x 782mm
Collection of University of Cambridge
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology'.
Event Date 2011
Author: Rachel Hand

Loan (Exhibition)
Display in 'Oceania: Imagining the Pacific' Exhibition. August - November 2011, City Gallery, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
Event Date 8/2011
Author: maa

Context (Display)
Exhibited: On loan to 'Oceania: Early Encounters', Wellington City Gallery as part of the 'Oceania' exhibition at Te Papa Tongarewa to co-incide with the rugby world cup, 6 August- 30 October 2011
Event Date 27/1/2015
Author: Rachel Hand

Context (Display)
Exhibited: Mathias Kauage: Artist of Papua New Guinea, MAA, 17 March- 21 April 2009.
Opening event, with lecture by Georgina Beier, 'Creating his own tradition' in the McDonald Seminar Room, McDonald Institute.

Exhibition label noted 'Papua New Guinea became independent on 16 September 1975. For the first time Kauage depicted a specific event. This is one of four screen-prints based on two large paintings: in bright enamels.... they convey Kauage's sense of abandoned happiness and euphoria during these days', wrote Georgina Bier soon afterwards.


Event Date 24/5/2019
Author: rachel hand

Context (Amendments / updates)
One of several prints created by Mathias Kauage depicting independence celebrations in Papua New Guinea. An edition of 60, comparison with data available on other impressions indicates that this one is titled 'Independence celebration 4', and printed in 1975.
Event Date 11/2/2025
Author: Eve K Haddow