Paper short abstract:

The Reef Islands Ethnographic Film Series in the Solomon Islands started in the early 1990s, with little focus on music, which was mainly used for ritual and church purposes. In 2005 it seemed a complete new music form had arrived or was that really what our film witnessed?

Paper long abstract:

The first main shoot for the Reef Islands Ethnographic Film Series in the Solomon Islands, in 1996, was seriously affected by the unexpected death of one of the main characters and partners in the project, Alfred Melotu, the paramount chief of the Aiwoo-speaking people on the island of Ngasinue. His death and funeral resulted in the first film we produced from the series, Alfred Melotu - the funeral of a paramount chief (2002), and footage from this plays an important role in the installation film, Passage (2014), which forms a crucial element of the ethnographic exhibition, The Life of the Dead, at Moesgaard Museum (MOMU). In 2005 I revisited the Reef Islands and Mola'a, a small settlement on the northern tip of Ngasinue, where Alfred had settled with his extended family only a few years prior to his death. It was mainly a courtesy visit to his descendants, especially Agnes, his widow, and sons, daughters and grandchildren. The main surprise, however, was the apparent emergence of a completely new music form and practice, or was that what it was?