It's a Sentimental Job for

Preserving Islands Culture It's a Sentimental Job for NSW Art Gallery Man

Working in a large workroom at the back of the Art Gallery of New South Wales is one of Australia’s best friends of the South Pacific Islands.

HE is Mr. William Boustead, the art gallery’s conservator, who has what he calls “a sentimental interest” in preserving the native art and monuments and European cul ture and historical records in the Pacific Islands.

Mr. Boustead, who works sur rounded by bottles of chemicals, mysterious-looking machines and tools, drums and dishes for mixing things in, and paintings in need of repair, is a member of the Inter national Institute for the Conserva tion of Historic and Artistic Works.

He is also a member of the Inter national Council of Museums, a sec tion of UNESCO, which resolved at a conference in Barcelona, Spain, in October last year that something should be done to preserve and re store cultural and historical material in hot and humid climates.

At the conference, representatives from a number of countries were allotted certain territories. Mr.

Boustead was given the job of look ing after the Pacific Islands, New Guinea, Indonesia, Borneo, North and South Vietnam, Malaya, Hongkong, and Cambodia.

Specifically, his job is to find out what cultural and historical material in the museums in these areas is in danger of decay, and then to advise and assist them in preserving or re storing it.

Questionnaires

“I am sending out questionnaires to all the museums in my area,” Mr.

Boustead said recently. “But anyone who has a collection of native arti facts, paintings or historical material of importance that is in danger of deterioration is welcome to write to me.”

Mr. Boustead is particularly en thusiastic about the Pacific Islands and New Guinea side of his assign ment as he lived in Tahiti, Fiji and other islands for several years before the war.

“Besides having a professional in terest in preserving and restoring the culture in those places, I have a sen timental interest,” he said.

“I spent some of the happiest years of my life in Tahiti. I took part in the original Mutiny on the Bounty film, and I knew such people as James Norman Hall, Charles Nord hoff, Robert Dean Frisbie, Viggo Rasmussen and Andy Thompson.

“I visited Fiji and Tahiti on my way to Barcelona last year and called at Tahiti, Vila and Noumea on the way back. Everywhere I went there was a growing need to preserve the native arts and crafts and historical material from decay—particularly in Tahiti.

"Shocking Mess"

“Much of the material in Tahiti— mainly European historical material such as ships’ logs, early drawings, prints and documents —is in a shock ing mess. If something is not done quickly it will disintegrate com pletely. Some of the objects found in maraes are also in a state of de generation.”

Mr. Boustead said the main causes of decay to cultural objects in his area were the combination of heat and high humidity, heat and sunlight, big and sudden changes of tempera ture, atmospheric pollution, insects and mould.

“There is a lot we can do to counteract these problems,” Mr.

Boustead said. “For example, ter mites in wooden objects such as carvings and tikis can be killed, after the objects are split, by fumigation in gas chambers. Then the ailing wood can be treated by vacuum im pregnation with waxes and synthetic resins.

Tapa cloth can be preserved by lamination, and bark paintings can be preserved by being sprayed with a synthetic resin. ‘“ln most cases we try to do noth ing that we cannot undo. We don’t try to add or enhance native art works because these things are re garded more or less as documents.”

Mr. Boustead added that he was experimenting on ways of reviving faded writing in documents and in preserving documents that had been partly damaged by insects.