Human world
Map of New Guinea
New Guinea is a large, tropical island north of Australia. People have lived there for over 40,000 years.
There are over 750 different languages in Papua New Guinea and many different cultures and traditions. People living in one valley may not understand those in the next unless they speak ‘tok pisin’ ('Pidgin English'), the relatively recent common language.
The New Guinea part of the gallery looks at:
It also shows how the meanings of objects can change, and how objects can be important to different people at different times.
Follow the links in the navigation panel to explore just some of our collections.