Paper short abstract:

With a focus on eighteenth century Polynesian artefacts from the HMS Pandora collection (Museum of Tropical Queensland) and drawing on long-term research in Tahiti, the paper explores the value of the past in the present and highlights the importance of continuous acts of making.

Paper long abstract:

Failing to find safe passage through the Great Barrier Reef, HMS Pandora sank in 1791 after a five-month search through Oceania for the mutineers of the Bounty. 186 years later, the wreck was discovered and objects from the site eventually made their way into the Museum of Tropical Queensland in Townsville. Among them were artefacts classified as Polynesian material culture, which soon became objects of research, yet from an archaeological perspective with a strong focus on the past. Having outlived the people who once made or collected them, however, the artefacts continue to be(come) part of various relationships in the present. With a particular interest in how creator communities value their cultural heritage within museum collections today, long-term research in Tahiti was conducted. Furthermore, it was hoped to find and map out stories directly related to the Pandora artefacts to counter the loss of certain materials and knowledge with the sinking of the ship.

The time spent in French Polynesia revealed the presence of similar objects, even though they may have transformed or made different connections. As the past continuously acts on the world, the old and the new seem to form a symbiosis: cultural heritage inspires contemporary practice and creation, while the latter keeps the former 'alive'. The paper highlights the importance of acts of making - for example in the form of art production and a collaborative exhibition project - as well as the potential to always create new stories.