The Museum has a large and remarkable collection of Malagan ceremonial carvings from New Ireland in Papua New Guinea. The carvings reveal rich stories of the New Ireland people – their connection with the environment and later with a new world of traders, collectors and missionaries.

Malagan figures are used in ceremonies to mark the stages of life. These Marumarua malagan figures were made for commemorative ceremonies to honour the spouses of the dead. A marumarua is associated with an ancestral life force known as tadar which is passed on to the next generation during the malagan ceremony.

Specialised craftsmen carve malagan figures from wood and adorned with other materials including shell, cloth and pigment. After a malagan ceremony, the figures are usually taken to sacred areas where they are left to rot.

Much of the AM’s malagan material was collected by Captain James Farrell, a Sydney trader and adventurer, but it was his wife Emma, an American–Samoan princess known as the ‘Queen of New Guinea’ who was the force behind the collection. After separating from Farrell she became a highly successful plantation owner and dealer in New Ireland.

Behind the malagan carvings is a dazzling array of New Guinea birds collected by the Reverend George Brown, who arrived in New Britain in 1875. Brown combined the spread of the gospel with scientific interests. As well as collecting birds – including the Raggiana Bird of Paradise that now features on Papua New Guinea’s flag – Brown took some of the first photographs of the region. His images of local chiefs, ceremonies and landscapes are held by the Museum as fragile glass-plate negatives.