Pacific Geographies (Sep 2012)
Report: Reflections on Climate Change by Contemporary Artists in Papua New Guinea
Abstract
The consequences of climate change are already felt in Papua New Guinea, especially on the atoll islands. Between 3,500 and 6,000 dwellers will need to resettle due to increasing land loss, salt-water inundation and gro-wing food insecurity. Once resettled as ‘climate refugees’ at nearby Bougainville Island, they face losing their self-sufficiency as well as their cultural identity. Contemporary art has been a focus of local artists since the 1970s. Usually, themes and motives are dealing with changes in society, depicting scenes of traditional and cultural events or body art, and decorated dancers. More recently, some artists started focusing explicitly on environmental issues. Losing home and culture due to the consequences of climate change, losing the forest due to logging by multinational com-panies, or staying hungry because of fish shortage due to over-fishing have become their concern. By presenting and commenting on the motives I want to show how this fear of loss is reflected in their artwork.
