Massim Museum & Cultural Centre

Our final Carnival Cruise Line ship the Carnival Luminosa Cruise ship, for 2025!!

What wonderful weather, what wonderful visitors. We trust you are enjoying your day despite the heat.

Thank you for choosing to drop by the Massim Museum friends. We hope to see you and more visitors on your next visit.

Cheers,
Team MM

Color, Style, and Sophistication
A month among the islands of Papua New Guinea reveals a living tradition of craftsmanship. Researcher David Payne documents the vibrant, ingenious canoes of Milne Bay—each one a masterpiece of culture, color, and seamanship.
https://www.woodenboat.com/issue/278/color-style-and-sophistication

The Oceania wing at The Met !

Explore the kaleidoscope of cultures in the arts of Oceania with our newly released exhibition tour. 🎬 Learn the stories behind some of the most exceptional works produced by Oceania’s visual artists, from elaborately carved bisj poles of the Asmat region to towering slit drums from Vanuatu. Watch now: met.org/45M8T7h #MetRockefellerWing

How beautiful it is to be able to preserve culture and stories in this way. To all those traditional artists who carve, paint, storytell, sing, dance, etc. to keep our traditional stories alive, keep doing what you do!!

🎬 Emily: I Am Kam is showing at Sydney Film Festival — 14 June, 12pm + 15 June, 2pm. We’re proud to have supported this powerful Tamarind Tree Pictures production for NITV, made in association with Screen Australia and Screen Territory. Experience the story behind the National Gallery’s major 2023 retrospective, and hear Emily speak in her own words through rare archival footage. More info https://www.sff.org.au/

Something interesting from this article is the mention of clan totems.

We'd like to hear more about clan totems from our Milne Bay people!!

Please share with us what your clan totem/s is/are in your local language and in English.

Share with us

DAMARIS DURI
Clan: Himala Bunebune
Village: Rabe
District: Alotau
Province: Milne Bay

Damaris, our Front Office Manager, joined the Holiday Inn family in 2024. A proud mother of six, she hails from Rabe Village, just 5 km from Alotau town in the Huhu LLG of Milne Bay Province. Alotau’s modern history is most notable for its role in World War II. In 1942, it became the site of the Battle of Milne Bay—the first major defeat of Japanese forces on land during the Pacific campaign. Australian and American troops, alongside local guides and labourers, successfully defended the bay, marking a turning point in the war. Today, war memorials and relics around Alotau pay tribute to those who served.

Her heritage is deeply rooted in the Tawala language and culture, and she belongs to the Himala Polotona sub-clan—literally meaning “Pig Spear”. The name reflects her ancestors’ tradition of hosting grand feasts, where whole communities would gather to share in food from their abundant gardens and pigs (padeba) raised to exceptional size. These pigs were more than food—they were a symbol of social status and prosperity.

Her clan is represented by four proud totems:
Bird – Tuwehu (white dove)
Fish – Igomida (parrotfish)
Snake – Mota Lele (green python)
Tree – Kwalakwalaiwe (evergreen forest tree with sweet-scented flowers)

Around her neck, Damaris wears a bagi—a traditional necklace known on the Tawala mainland as potalu. For her, it is more than adornment; it is a piece of her identity.

For Damaris, she shared that she was truly grateful for the opportunity by the hotel to help share about her culture and more personally for her was the opportunity to honour her late father.

One of our trustees, Dr Susan Abel, was fortunate enough to visit the Museo delle Civiltà in Rome, Italy, to see some old Kwato photos taken by Lamberto Loria. Loria travelled through PNG (then "New Guinea") as part of the 1893–1896 Italian scientific mission, collecting both photographs and artefacts.

With the museum's permission, Susan was able to view and photograph them to share with the Kwato community. We hope to hold a larger exhibition in 2026 to share more of these images

Here are a few to start the conversation around reconnecting these photos with the families and community they belong to. These are not just archival records – they are part of our living history.

If you recognise anyone or have stories to share, your contributions are most welcome

The Massim Museum Staff and volunteers were happy to have Mr.Wak, an architect from NAC visit us today to draw inspiration from the Art and cultural exhibits to help him with his work here at our currently upgraded Gurney Airport. He was accompanied by his colleague Mr. Vincent.

Thanks guys for visiting.

Cheers
MM Team

Big acknowledgment for Fidelma Saevaru for the work she does around this project 🙏🏻