Oceania

Containing about 5000 pieces, the Oceania collection is the second largest in Switzerland. It covers the whole of Oceania (Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia) and illustrates the extraordinary variety of cultural practices in this part of the world. The most represented regions are New Guinea (more than 2000 objects) and Australia (900 objects).

Remarkable works include one of the fifty feather cloak from the Hawaii Islands, attested in the collections as early as 1829, some thirty engraved bamboos from New Caledonia, two navigation charts from the Marshall Islands, few sculptures and an overmodelled skull from New Ireland, a lidded bowl from the Marquesas Islands, and two carved trees from Australia.

A very important collection consists of the engraved bamboos from New Caledonia, Marguerite Lobsiger-Dellenbach (1905-1993) carried out their first systematic and comparative study. Other noteworthy sets are that one collected by Edgar Aubert de la Rüe (1901-1991) during his travels to Vanuatu and French Polynesia, by Maurice Bastian (1906-1994) for the Pacific Islands and Australia, and Georges Barbey (1886-1963) also for Australia. Finally, we should mention the collection of tapa, a malleable nonwoven cloth used by the inhabitants of the Pacific to make everyday artefacts as well as objects of worship and prestige.

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