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ART AND HUMAN RIGHTS:
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National Museum of Australia |
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Born in 1959, Dr Michael Mel is from the Mogei tribe of the Hagen area in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Graduating in 1996 with a PhD from Flinders University in South Australia, Dr Mel is currently Senior Lecturer and Head of Expressive Arts and Religious Education Department at the University of Goroka, PNG, lecturing in art education and Melanesian cultural studies. As a performance artist, curator, and writer his focus is on the contemporary art of Papua New Guinea, dealing with issues of cultural survival and education through art. He was most recently curator for Papua New Guinea for the Noumea Biennale 2000 at the Centre Jean-Marie Tjibaou , Co-selector for the Papua New Guinea contingent to the Pacific Festival of Arts 2000 in Noumea, and Selector for Papua New Guinea for the Shrines for the Next Millennium as part of the Olympic Arts Festival 2000 in Sydney. In the area of performance, Dr Mel presented the performance/installation piece Ples Namel (Our Place) at the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane in 1996, a work which questioned Western representations of PNG; in 1993 Dr Mel directed the workshop production Moni Tok (Money Talks), which explored issues of corruption and logging in present-day PNG. Dr Mel was Co-Chair for the Indigenous Commission for the Eleventh World Congress of Comparative Education Societies in Seoul, Korea, 2001. As part of the Art and Human Rights Conference Dr Mel will be presenting his paper entitled, Arts and Human Rights in an Indigenous Context in the New Millennium and a performance for the exhibition Witnessing to Silence at the National Museum of Australia dealing with the theme of cultural survival. | 
Michael Mel |
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This page has been authorized by Professor Iain McCalman, Director HRC as relevant
officer. |
