Papers from Ivilikou: Papua New Guinea Music Conference and Festival (1997); Kulele 3: Occasional papers on Pacific music and dance

Abstract

‘It was a shame for us Papua New Guineans to see foreigners come and do research on our own cultures, then present reports to us and go back to their country...[I]t would be best if most Papua New Guineans do more research’. This was the reactaon of one of the music students from the Faculty of Creative Arts (University of Papua New Guinea) who were invited to attend the Ivilikou conference and who were subsequently asked to comment on their impressions. As long ago as 1980 this reviewer made the same recommendation (see my ‘Music Research in Papua New Guinea: The Past and the Future’, Studies in Music14 (1980), 1-8). However, it is pleasing to see that in the subsequent seventeen years Papua New Guineans are beginning to undertake such research. A glance at the authorship of the papers in this collection shows that no fewer than eleven of the twenty-three papers have been contributed by indigenous authors.