In a quiet house in central Deloraine, surrounded by the reminders of a life lived between two worlds, Fritz Robinson is preparing to part with a lifetime of memories.
The exhibition at Lucy’s Gallery will be a combined display of artefacts and photographs gathered across 38 years, alongside cameras from half a century of image-making. “It’s going to be a combined exhibition of artifacts, the stuff that has arrived or been given to me over the last 38 years. Together with some photographs, maps, shields, those sorts of bigger items. And also some of the cameras that were used in the last last 50 years, some of them are quite old and rather fun.”
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The black and white photographs, mostly taken between 1969 and 1975, capture “large groups of people meeting as well as individual portraits of old people and women and children and events.” Robinson was an agricultural officer in the region when taking those photos. Trained in New Zealand at Lincoln in the South Island, he arrived in Papua New Guinea in 1969, drawn partly by family history. “My father and my uncle both served in Papua New Guinea in the RAAF during the war.” He would remain there, on and off, until 2014.
Some of the most striking pieces in the exhibition are everyday objects. Travelling by 70-foot canoe to remote coastal regions, Robinson encountered communities rarely visited by outsiders. “Some of the places there, the things that they were using were so attractive to us. And we said so, and they said, ‘Oh, you want ’em, we’ll make another one.’” Among the items Robinson collected is “a little woman’s paddle” and a small headrest carved from a single piece of wood. “These sort of wonderful everyday items where the aesthetics form following the function. They’re just gorgeous things to have.”
There are bilums, the woven string bags used across Papua New Guinea. “Bilum is a bag and it’s also the same word that’s used for carrying babies. It’s universal. Everybody in Papua New Guinea has a bilum.” He notes the design has changed over time. “The earlier bilum have long handles and the modern ones have very short handles. And the reason being that theft has increased. So they’re now tucked under your arm. Much tighter.”
Other artefacts include tapa cloth made from the bark of a native mulberry tree, ceremonial axes, necklaces, clay pots, sand paintings, baskets, a wooden crocodile and modern masks. Nearly every object carries a personal story. “If I pick up an arrow I can remember where it came from and who gave it to me and why. And so I’m handing out my memories as well as an artifact.”
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The photographs range from wedding celebrations and rainforest landscapes at 9,000 feet to a Japanese boat in a Second World War tunnel. He also printed images from some negatives.
What endures most from his decades in Papua New Guinea is not the artefacts but the relationships. “I’m a people person,” he says. “Some of my greatest friends were PNG people.” Of two cousins he worked with in a mining operation in Porgera, he says, “they are as close friends as any other friends I’ve got.”
Reflecting on cultural difference, he sees common ground. “Everybody seems to me to be, they want to get married and have two kids and live happily ever after. And it’s exactly the same up there.”
After downsizing from a farm with “unlimited storage”, Robinson has decided it is time to let others take custodianship. “I don’t see the point of keeping artifacts or cameras or anything really in a garage in the dark when somebody else might enjoy it.”
The exhibition can be found during March from Friday to Monday 10am to 5pm at Wayland and Daughters, 18 West Barrack Street, Deloraine.
