Elisabet Kauage is the matriarch of her family, and wife of the renowned artist Mathias Kauage OBE (1944–2003). Her own paintings explore the experience of living and working in Papua New Guinea during a time of social and cultural upheaval. Elisabet’s canvases feature rich colours and the decorative forms that her husband made famous. They also offer one of the few contemporary commentaries on the nation’s customary practices, historical events and gender politics from a woman’s perspective.

Featuring a ship festooned with colourful flags and skippered by two white men wearing ornate military headwear, Kiapten Kuk Ship 2002 (Captain Cook’s ship) presents Kauage’s take on Captain James Cook’s journeys of ‘exploration’ and ‘discovery’ throughout the Pacific. In Kauage’s portrayal, Cook and a fellow officer enjoy the spacious upper decks, while the crowded space below is occupied by a dozen men and women wearing Melanesian ceremonial bilas (ornamentation).  

Elevating important figures in her own personal history, Mother of Mathias Kauage c.2009 is an insightful portrait of a Papua New Guinean Highlands widow dressed in ceremonial bilas (ornamentation). The work highlights the importance that in-laws play in the lives of women who often leave their parents’ home at a young age to live with their husbands’ families. Love story of late Mathias Kauage (OBE) and wife Mrs Elisabet Kauage 2006 provides another biographical perspective. The painting begins with a depiction of Mathias as a child and ends with a portrait of his child with Elisabet — a poignant memory of the beloved artist, which, like his unique painting style, Elisabet continues to nurture 20 years after Mathias’s death.