Paper short abstract:

During a recent visit to the Reef Islands (Solomon Islands), Peter I Crawford showed a film on the death and funeral of a paramount chief to his descendants. The presentation discusses their reactions to the film and a long-term film project, and shows recordings of a remarkable musical development.

Paper long abstract:

The Reef Islands Ethnographic Film Project was started in 1994 by Peter I. Crawford and the Danish anthropologist Jens Pinholt. The idea was to work closely together with two neighbouring communities, one Papuan-speaking the other Polynesian, on the visual documentation of 'kastom', in the Reef Islands of Temotu Province (Solomon Islands). One of the films produced so far was on the death and funeral of a paramount chief. In late 2005 Peter I Crawford revisited the Reef Islands and the close family of the deceased paramount chief to give them a copy of the film. They reacted in a very corporeal way by insisting on performing a new kind of music that did not exist in the Reef Islands when the film had been shot in 1996. The presentation discusses different forms of expression based on a short film on the visit.