ABSTRACT
A museum is a kind of technology, a means to preserve and present objects in the same sense that a book can be described as a technology to preserve and communicate information, ideas and images. Alongside the major national museums, many local and regional museums and cultural centres have been founded in different places, with a diversity of different objectives. Presentations of history in Melanesian museums have, to date, mostly focused around the Second World War. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), the Modern History Museum is administered by the PNG National Museum and focuses mainly on war relics. The kastom movement across Melanesia – the movement to ‘return to traditional ways’ that emerged as the colonial era ended – sometimes seemed inauthentic to early commentators. All national museums have struggled with their place in the governmental structures of the nations they represent.
