ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a remarkable collection of 450 photographs taken by the Cambridge anthropologist John Layard in the Small Islands off Northeast Malakula in Vanuatu between 1914 and 1915. The names of people that Layard carefully recorded in his original handwritten catalogue were gradually excised as the images circulated widely and became part of a broader system of anthropological classification. Huffman was appointed the first fulltime Curator of what became the Vanuatu Cultural Centre (VCC), initiating a process of collecting field photographs, images of objects in museum collections, and other documentary material related to the archipelago from around the world. The fieldworkers deposit visual and other documentary data at the VCC, where they meet for annual workshops organized around particular themes to discuss findings and set priorities for the following year. External researchers need to demonstrate the benefits of their work for ni-Vanuatu prior to obtaining research clearance and are often assigned to particular projects of local interest.
