JCU Cairns Campus Library and the Cairns Institute is proud to host the launch of the Bragge Collection, an exciting and significant donation from Cairns resident, Laurie Bragge to the University. This very generous donation has been gifted to JCU to facilitate further research into this diverse and fascinating tropical region and the societies that call it home.
Donor, Laurie Bragge spent more than 45 years living and working in Papua New Guinea after taking a job with the Australian administration as a Patrol Officer (aka Kiap) in 1961. During this time he developed a deep appreciation and respect for PNG, its culture and peoples. He spent most of his time in the Sepik area but also in other parts of the country such as the Highlands, Milne Bay and the Gulf Province.
The Bragge Collection features two intimately connected components - more than 600 material culture artefacts collected and well documented by Laurie Bragge during the time he lived and worked in Papua New Guinea, and his personal library containing various resources, which he used extensively when writing his multi-volume history of the Sepik.
The launch event will also be supported by a special exhibition of a selection of the Bragge Collection material culture artefacts, titled "Sepik Histories: Reflecting on Collecting" curated by Trish Barnard, Dr Daniela Vavrova and Professor Rosita Henry. It will be located in two buildings - the Cairns Campus Library and the Cairns Institute and will be available for viewing from the launch until Friday the 28th of June. The exhibition seeks to foster reflection on Bragge's history of collecting and the different values associated with the things he collected. Bragge's life work - his history of the Sepik, partly based on tribal histories bequeathed to him by Sepik Elders - invites deep reflection on Sepik ways of knowledge, as embodied in the objects he collected.
The launch event will take place next Wednesday 22 May:
Cairns Campus Library
10:30am Official launch with special guest speakers
Professor Sandra Harding, AO, Vice Chancellor and President, James Cook University,
Dr Andrew Moutu, Director, PNG National Museum and Art Gallery
Professor Nola Alloway, Dean, College of Arts, Society and Education
Mr Laurie Bragge, Collection Donor
11:00am Invitation to view the Exhibition and displays
The Cairns Institute
11:30am Invitation to view the expanded Exhibition
12:00pm Film screening – A Blank on the Map (Lecture Theatre D3.054)
If you wish to attend please RSVP by Friday 17th of May.
This generous donation of material culture artefacts, official diaries and reports, oral history interviews, and written book manuscripts on Sepik history will provide rich material for future research into historical ethnographies in Papua New Guinea.
The material artefacts from this collection are curated by the Discipline of Anthropology, Material Culture Collection (College of Arts, Society and Education), and housed in The Cairns Institute. To enquire about these items, please contact Professor Rosita Henry.
Laurie Bragge’s personal library is managed by JCU Library Special Collections (Library & Information Services), and housed in the Special Collections area of the Cairns Library. Enquiries can be directed to our Special Collections team.
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