Julie Adams

Published on the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook's extraordinary voyages of exploration, this publication reflects on and charts the enduring legacies of his encounters with Pacific peoples. Objects collected and images made on or associated with the voyages are explored alongside artworks created by contemporary artists from the Pacific region. Together, they reveal that understandings of history are rarely...

The British Museum's uniquely important Melanesian collection is pre-eminent among early collections, and the 20,000 items it comprises are core to understanding the cultures of the western Pacific. The extraordinary art styles represented, from groups such as New Guinea, New Ireland, and the Solomon Islands and relating to ancestors, family and clan, houses, feasting, and festivals, are of interest not...