International Art | Sculpture
Satyr with wineskin cast 19th century
after UNKNOWN ROMAN
Gregory Dausi Moah
APT9
Born 1911 Gagan, Buka District, Autonomous Region of Bougainville
Died 1988 Gagan, Autonomous Region of Bougainville
Lived and worked in Gagan, Autonomous Region of Bougainville
Gregory Dausi Moah was a Naboin man who lived in the village of Mokinaka. A self-taught artist, he was inspired by his traditional elders and an exposure to new mediums of expression via the nuns and priests of the Gagan mission. He was the lead artist commissioned to build and decorate the local church and priest’s residence. During the 1960s and early 1970s, Moah served on the Hutjena Local Government Council (1964–72), established his own plantation business, and was commissioned by the Bougainville Provincial Government to lead a group of men to carve totemic poles for the Aropa International Airport. In 1972, Moah was invested as a chief of his clan’s Tsuhana (clan house). Encouraged by Father Lukan, Moah built an innovative new Tsuhana decorated extensively with impressive paintings and carvings memorialising significant ancestor figures and clan stories.
Gregory Dausi Moah / Solos people, Autonomous Region of Bougainville 1911–88 / Roko figure in Tsuhana (Chiefs meeting house) (detail) 1977 / Colour print / © Gregory Dausi Moah / Photograph: Bob Miller
A self-taught artist inspired by his elders, Gregory Dausi Moah drew on the strong artistic traditions of the mountainous area of Buka Island in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, the area where the Solos-speaking inhabitants believe life began. Major spirit figures such as Roko and Guérian, the first son of Buka, feature prominently in Moah’s carvings and paintings.
In 1972, Moah was invested as a chief of his clan’s Tsuhana (ceremonial house), and his works decorating the Tsuhana memorialise significant ancestor figures and clan stories. Moah also led teams of artists who created artworks that decorate the church at the nearby Gagan Mission and the international airport at Aropa in Bouganville. Moah’s only surviving works are those in the Gagan Church and two drawings dating from the 1970s. The drawings document ceremonial traditions including a feast being prepared in the Tsuhana, and a Buka man wearing the Upe, an iconic headdress worn by young male initiates from the area.
At a time of immense change — including the establishment of an independent Papua New Guinea in 1975, and the decade of violence surrounding Panguna mining operations in Bougainville (1988–98) — Moah’s lively works document the continuing importance of spiritual and ceremonial life.
