Contenu du sommaire : Histoires, matérialités et muséographies des collections océaniennes. Études de cas

‪The article, based on interviews between Anne Lavondès and Véronique Mu-Liepmann led in 2020 and 2021, will first look back at pioneering works prior to Anne Lavondès: W.M.T. Brigham (late 19th), Karl von den Steinen (late 19th, early 20th), Margaret Titcomb (1937), and finally Marie-Charlotte Laroche. In a second part, the article will focus on the contribution of Anne Lavondès herself. Her pioneering work on Oceanian and Polynesian collections in France helped raise the awareness of curators and collection managers of patrimonial ensembles they kept, therefore enabling Polynesians to learn about ancient elements of their early material culture scattered in Museums in France. The article will end by featuring contributions of various speakers from the 1990s including Roger Boulay. It will evoke the action of French Polynesia since the 2010s, which through the intermediary of the Museum of Tahiti and islands and following the example of the New Caledonia has initiated a vast inventory of Polynesian collections held in Museums located in Metropolitan France to build an indispensable database.‪

‪In September 2018, after over forty years of opening, the Musée de Tahiti et des Îles – Te Fare Manaha closed down its permanent display to begin its renovation. This substantial physical reconstruction belongs to a complex process under consideration over a few decades. Questioning both the history and the future of the institution, this project stems from a reflection around twenty-first century's [French] Polynesian identity. The display thus combines an approach by archipelago and common themes, while incorporating the Polynesians' relationship to their arts and material culture in their natural environment. Tracing the history of the museum and its predecessor the Musée de Papeete, as well as their collection and display choices, allows a recontextualization of the thinking processes, stakes, and perspectives proffered by this project.‪

‪Through the study of anthropomorphic sculptures, representations of deities or deified ancestors ‪ ‪tiki‪‪ and ‪ ‪ti'i‪‪, a major component of the material culture heritage of French Polynesia, this paper offers an overview of curatorial practices developed in the local cultural landscape. These reveal differences in the consideration of figures from various archipelagos, mainly exemplified by an over representation of the Marquesan ‪ ‪tiki‪‪. The history of the collections and associated curatorial practices within the Musée de Tahiti et des Îles – ‪ ‪Te Fare Manaha‪‪ and its predecessor the Musée de Papeete will therefore be discussed. The analysis then expands to curatorial contexts outside the museum-scape, particularly linked with a popular and urban visual culture, which reflects the strong contemporary local presence of these reappropriated and translocated figures, often beyond their originating archipelago. Contemporary productions, reproductions or motifs embody value transformations, reflecting the cultural complexity and dynamism of this region.‪

‪Oceanian canoes' models, as well as other forms of miniatures, remain little esteemed by institutions and museological research that developed from the second half of the 20‪‪th‪‪ century onwards. This article therefore presents a study of the Toulouse Museum's collection. This work, which was an opportunity to take into consideration the materiality of these pieces, enabled to question this type of objects and corpora, thus opening up avenues of research on their denomination, their identity, their origin and their complex history.‪

‪For the opening of the Musée de l'Homme, Patrick O'Reilly (1900-1988), a Marist priest who had been trained in anthropology, was sent to Bougainville for a year (1934 and 1935). He returned with a large collection of objects, few of which were properly documented. Only contemporary investigations made possible a clearer identification of the use and origin of these objects. On their arrival in France, the archival fieldnotes were separated from the relevant items. The contemporary context (the desired independence of Bougainville, issues for the public of the museums holding these collections) and the ambiguity of the collector's status (sent as an anthropologist but operating out of a mission network) raise several questions that this study intends to highlight. ‪

As part of New Caledonia's process of negotiated decolonization, the Noumea Agreement has explored the path to a new model of sovereignty, recognizing that the sovereignty of the Kanak people is a prerequisite for the founding of a "new sovereignty, shared in a common destiny". In the aftermath of the third referendum on the transfer of the last sovereign powers (12 December 2021), it seems important to analyse the emergence of this "shared sovereignty" and to question its content and its links with the notions of "decolonization" and "independence". Then, following on from earlier work, we review the hypothesis of an emerging “islandian” sovereignty in New Caledonia and conclude by assessing the progress of the decolonization process. The originality of our approach lies in its multidisciplinary nature, combining law, politics and economics.