Exhibition (Maudslay Gallery)
EXH.2018.4 | Pacific Currents
Event Date
Author: Remke Velden

Context (CMS Context)
Exhibited: On display as part of the bilum tree installation in Assembling Bodies: Art, Science & Imagination, Andrews Gallery 10 March 2009 - 6 November 2010.
Event Date 12/10/2015
Author: Rachel Hand

Context (CMS Context)
Professor Dame Marilyn Stathern, William Wyseman Professor of Anthropology, 1993- 2008, Cambridge University, conducted fieldwork in the New Guinea Highlands and in Port Moresby from the 1960s onward.
Given to the donor in the field, (1995), or sent by hand (Ru's 1999 visit) or by post.
[See Maureen MacKenzie, 1991, Androgynous objects: String bags and gender in Central New Guinea, Chur: Harwood Academic Publishers Ltd.]
"Good bilums are expensive (20- 50 Kina in 1995 before inflation i.e., £10- £25 sterling). All these were paid for in some manner or other, even when 'given' (i.e., through return gifts): these are not the kind of things one receive without making recompense. They are regarded as quintessentially 'Papua New Guinean'." [From notes by Prof. Marilyn Strathern, 18/8/2003]

Event Date 12/10/2015
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Light and dark purple billum made by Helen Ru in an innovative design. "I suspect that the wool has been unravelled and spun agin to reach the required toughness/ suppleness. Made by someone recognised as very skilful." [From notes by Prof. Marilyn Strathern, 18/8/2003]
Event Date 12/10/2015
Author: maa

Conservation (Remedial)
CON.2018.4035 | Remedial
Event Date 8/2/2018
Author: Christina Rozeik