Percy Money Papua New Guinea Photographs

The images show scenes of life in the villages of Wanigela and Uiaku, and include portraits, food preparation, hunting, fishing, housing, pottery, tool making and social activities and ceremonies. The albums include Money's handwritten captions and decorative borders.

Percy J Money

Percy Money was an Anglican lay missionary who lived in Collingwood Bay, Oro Province, PNG, for 10 years from 1901 to 1910. He was a major figure in the establishment of the first Anglican Mission in Wanigela and extended the reach of the Mission to Maisin people in Uiaku, building a large church and school there.

He learnt both Ubir (spoken in Wanigela) and Maisin (spoken in Uiaku), translating the liturgy and some hymns into both languages. From 1901 to 1907 Money was the only resident missionary in Collingwood Bay, so spent much of his time with the local people. He took a large number of photographs and collected ethnographic material.

Money corresponded with the Australian Museum regularly throughout his time at Wanigela, and in 1904 he offered to make an ethnographic collection, which the Museum acquired from 1904 to 1908. The glass plate negatives were donated by Money in 1908. Only one other collection of 13 negatives is known to exist in the South Australian Museum.

On his return to Sydney in 1910 Money offered sets of prints for sale to various institutions, but the two albums in this collection were kept by his family until after his death. Artefacts donated to the Australian Museum by Percy Money are held in our Cultural Collections.