Kiap; PNG; Papua New Guinea; Sepik; photographs; 50 Treasures
Summary
See above a selection of photos from the album. Thumbnail link to full album below.
This item is one of our 50 Treasures: Celebrating 50 years of James Cook University
Dr. Daniela Vávrová answers the question 'Why is this significant?'
'It all started when I was earning pocket money harvesting potatoes in Victoria's Kiewa Valley back in the 1950s', says Laurie Bragge. At the tender age of 12, he had discovered an Aboriginal stone axe blade in the potato field that ignited a life-long fascination with stone tools and eventually led him to one of the most wondrous places of stone axe production in the world; Papua New Guinea.
Bragge's service as a kiap (Australian patrol officer) in PNG gave him unique opportunities to document the lives of the peoples among whom he lived and worked. He not only produced a series of official reports between 1961 and 1975 for the Australian government, but also kept rich field diaries, recorded and transcribed oral histories, collected artefacts, and created a significant photographic record.
In 2018, Laurie Bragge donated his entire collection to James Cook University, including his research library and his own history of the Sepik region.
Laurie Bragge was only 18 years old when he arrived to take up his first patrol post in the Eastern Highlands of PNG, with a Pentax analogous photographic camera around his neck.
Album 1 of his photograph collection shows his early career as a kiap and portrays various places in the Highlands, such as Goroka, Kainantu, Chuave, and Gumine, the Bismarck Range and Mt Wilhelm — the highest peak in PNG.
In 1964, Bragge was posted to Green River Station, West Sepik. It was known to be a hot, isolated place, but of strategic importance, being on the border with Indonesia (former Dutch New Guinea). The final pages of Album 1 and the entire Album 2 (years 1966-7) depict Bragge's observations of life in the West Sepik. For Bragge, it was the ultimate adventure to be posted to this region and to have the chance to spend time in Telefomin, Oksapmin, Mianmin, and Atbalmin country.
Bragge's photographs provide a powerful medium for understanding historical encounters during the period of Australian administration in PNG. Photographs are traces of time. They arrest the viewer, prompt memories, compel reflections about people and places, and entice rediscoveries of past relationships.
Photographs also reveal the lived experiences of the photographer. Each photograph in the Bragge albums is a telling image of his life and work in PNG, attached to his own stories. Yet, the photographs also invite other memories, different interpretations, new perspectives. These stories remain to be told. The Bragge Collection offers rich research opportunities for scholars interested in the history and heritage of PNG and particularly invites the attention of Papua New Guinean researchers.
Dr. Daniela Vávrová is currently Adjunct Research Fellow and the director of The AV Lab and ALTAR at The Cairns Institute and College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University. In her academic and audiovisual research, she explores how people shape and are shaped by their social and cultural environment through their sensory experiences. Since 2005 her field site is situated in the Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. For more information see Related Links
Collection access: Special Collection items may be used on the Library premises by visiting the appropriate Reading Rooms during opening hours. Digital copies of selected items from the special collections will be made available through the repository as copyright or other restrictions allow.
