ALL THINGS TROBRIAND A portrait of Dr. G. J. M. (Fred) Gerrits’ Trobriand Island collections, 1968 to 1972 Volume I Désirée C. J. Wisse October 2018 Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Sainsbury Research Unit For the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, University of East Anglia © This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived therefrom must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. Student number: 6355714 Abstract Dr. G.J.M. Gerrits was stationed on the Trobriand Islands as the Medical Officer between 1968 and 1971. In this period he collected approximately 3000 artefacts from the Trobriand Islands and the surrounding region. Approximately two- thirds of these objects are presently held in museums in Europe, Australia and Papua New Guinea. The study places Gerrits’ collection into a historical context of Trobriand collecting encounters and gains insights into ethnographic collection formation, considering various aspects of collecting. These include a collector’s multiple motives (Grijp, 2006), the desire to collect (complete) series of objects and unique pieces (Baudrillard 1994, Elsner and Cardinal, 1994) and differences between stable and mobile collecting (O‘Hanlon, 2000: 15). The study utilises Gerrits’ documentation, the collections of artefacts and photographs, conversations with Gerrits, Trobriand Islanders and other collectors, and draws on the literature on collecting research and publications containing information on Trobriand Island contact history. Being situated in the 1960s and 1970s, this work contributes an alternative perspective to collecting research which mainly thematises early 20th century and earlier collections. Also, ethnographic collecting has so far hardly been addressed within the extended body of Trobriand Island research. This study helps fill this gap and hopes to inspire further research into Trobriand collecting history. Gerrits is shown to be probably the only collector within Trobriand collecting who established a comprehensive and well documented ethnographic collection. He included those Western influences which he perceived as being creative and innovative, with specific differences between his collections of artefact and photographs. Two key factors in shaping the collection are his wish to establish a comprehensive ethnographic collection and his wish to capture and preserve a Trobriand world, which has an element of salvage collecting but beyond that also has an emotional component. Within the colonial context, collecting connected people but also kept them apart, allowing individuals to belong without belonging. Gerrits’ register of acquisitions is shown to be conscientious, but some of its categories to be ambiguous and partially biased. Gerrits’ case is of broader relevance here, as these concepts are used more generally in collecting and research. Indigenous agency is shown to be present in the documentation. Gerrits collected a great variety of object types with significant differences between numbers of objects per type. These differences reflect differences in availability, Gerrits’ interests and budgetary limits, and thus the intertwining of agencies. Other circumstances more generally shaped the collection, such as Gerrits’ attitudes towards indigenous people and Westerners, and the Trobriand context as a relatively homogenous cultural region with some variety. Approximately 57 % of the acquisitions came from Kiriwina, the main Trobriand Island, 53 % originate from the surrounding region. Differences between these areas are due to differences between stable and mobile collecting, but also due to differences in material culture (for example different canoe types) and the fact that certain practices had been abandoned in Kiriwina but not in more remote places. Collections from different areas complemented each other to form comprehensive museum collections. All things Trobriand, Wisse, 2018 Preface and Acknowledgments Every research has its roots in a researcher’s personal spheres of interests and histories. Some of my interests and histories should be mentioned here. Objects, made and used by people, have always fascinated me. As a child I would sit under our dining-table figuring out the extension-construction and wondering how and by whom the carved legs had been made. Collecting, anything, never grasped me. Applying categories never took my interest. Yet, questioning classifications has been with me all along, perhaps fueled by growing up between categories in a multi-cultural setting. My father had lived in pre- Second World War colonial Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies) which sparked discussions about ‘locals’ and ‘whites’ from an early age. Links to this research are however more direct. Fred Gerrits, the collector discussed in this work, was born in Bandung, Indonesia before the Second World War. Both our fathers worked at the airport of Bandung, albeit in different capacities. It is highly likely that they met. Being with Fred and his wife Nel felt like being on familiar ground. The more direct history of this research starts with an object: the decorated Trobriand yam store held at the Wereldmuseum (Museum for World Cultures) Rotterdam, The Netherlands. I encountered it while doing an internship for the Amsterdam conservation school at the Museum in Rotterdam. Having read a bit of Malinowski’s ‘Argonauts’ (1922) at university, the Trobriand Islands were not quite new to me. But it was this, large, yet largely dismantled and severely neglected, house that captivated me. Or was it not just the house but also the many labels it had attached, naming all elements of its construction in a handwritten mix of Kilivila and Dutch? Kees van der Meiracker, then curator at the museum shared my fascination for the house and keenly supported my consequent initiatives. My final project for conservation school discussed ethical i All things Trobriand, Wisse, 2018 questions of conservation of the house, including a day of discussions with invited experts at the museum. For this project I started reading more Malinowski, and, looking into the house’s specific history, recovered the collector’s name: G.J.M (Fred) Gerrits. Thereafter I completed an M.A. thesis at Leiden University, discussing Trobriand yam stores within Nancy Munn’s ‘model of value creation’ (Wisse, 2006).1 Working at the museum, together with Kees van der Meiracker, I ensured funding for the restoration of the house and its planned exhibit. Changes in museum policies changed the course of events.2 After a break of two years3 I returned to the museum to finalise conservation work without the prospect of an exhibit. During this period I got in touch with Fred Gerrits, initially only to obtain original photographs of the house in situ. At the PAA -Europe conference in Ghent (2008) Belgium, I met Christian Kaufmann. He had been in friendly contact with Fred and Nel Gerrits since their early years in Papua New Guinea. From him I learnt that there was much more than the yam store. Gerrits had acquired a large Trobriand collection, which had never been published or studied in-depth. Gerrits was at first rather overwhelmed by my enthusiastic request to work on his collection, yet after some thought agreed to take me on. Steven Hooper was interested in a Trobriand project and supported my application for this research, to be based at the Sainsbury Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. I investigated Gerrits’ collections of artefacts, photographs and field notes and other Trobriand collections and archives held at the Queensland Museum, and Gerrits’ Trobriand collections held at the National Ethnographic Museum 1 In Munn,N. 1986. The Fame of Gawa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2 The Wereldmuseum Rotterdam (Museum for World Cultures, Rotterdam) used to be one of the three major ethnographic museums in the Netherlands, along with the National Ethnographic Museum in Leiden and the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. Particularly its Africa and Pacific collections are internationally acknowledged. The story of its tragic decline, being reduced from approximately 130 staff members to about five, is general known among museum professionals and needs not be repeated here. 3 During which I worked in The Field Museum, Chicago and was involved in the care for its Maori meeting house. ii All things Trobriand, Wisse, 2018 in Leiden and the Museum der Kulturen in Basel, based on information stored in their respective databases. Gerrits and I spent numerous mornings at his home in Queensland in June and September 2013, discussing his collection and how and why he had acquired things. I investigated several other Trobriand Island collections in Europe and Australia. In Europe these included collections at the Wereldmuseum Rotterdam, the British Museum, Pitt Rivers Museum, University Museum of Aberdeen, National Museum of Scotland and the National Ethnographic Museums in Vienna and Budapest. Besides the Queensland Museum in Australia, I researched collections and museum archives at the University of Queensland Museum, the Australian Museum and the Macleay Museum (Sydney University Museums) in Sydney, the National Art Gallery and the National Museum in Canberra, the Museum Victoria in Melbourne and the South Australian Museum in Adelaide. I obtained further