Focus and Scope

Journal of Melanesian Performance Art is a peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal dedicated to the study of performing arts in Melanesia. The journal focuses on performance practices in, from, and about Papua, West Papua, Maluku, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia/Kanaky, Torres Strait, and Melanesian diasporic communities.

The journal aims to:

  • Document, analyse, and revitalize traditional and contemporary Melanesian performance practices.

  • Explore how performance relates to identity, indigeneity, cosmology, ritual, gender, environment, politics, education, tourism, and the creative economy in Melanesian contexts.

  • Provide a dialogic space for artists, indigenous communities, scholars, students, curators, and policy makersengaged with Melanesian performance and culture.

The journal welcomes work from performance studies, anthropology, ethnomusicology, theatre and dance studies, cultural studies, media studies, and other relevant disciplines.

Scope

The Journal of Melanesian Performance Art welcomes contributions including (but not limited to) the following areas:

  1. Forms and practices of Melanesian performance

    • Music, dance, theatre, ritual performance, storytelling and oral poetry, spoken word, body art, mask and costume, processions, and community festivals.

    • Contemporary, experimental, and hybrid performance forms that draw on Melanesian traditions.

  2. Performance, cosmology, and belief systems

    • Performance in relation to myth, cosmology, ritual, spirituality, and indigenous knowledge systems.

    • Symbolism of the body, costume, mask, sound, and movement in ceremonial and sacred contexts.

  3. Identity, indigeneity, and decolonial perspectives

    • Performance as a site for negotiating Melanesian identities, race, gender, sexuality, class, and generational change.

    • Decolonial, Indigenous, and community-based approaches to performance and research ethics.

  4. Modernity, hybridity, and globalization

    • Encounters between local performance traditions and global forms (popular music, film, social media, digital performance, global festivals, etc.).

    • Effects of colonial histories, missionization, migration, urbanisation, and new technologies on Melanesian performance practices.

  5. Education, transmission, and heritage

    • Teaching and learning of performing arts in schools, communities, cultural centres, and higher education institutions.

    • Performance as intangible cultural heritage, including projects of revitalisation, safeguarding, and intergenerational transmission.

  6. Cultural policy, creative industries, and tourism

    • Cultural policy and governance related to performing arts in Melanesia.

    • Festivals, cultural events, and tourism that centre Melanesian performance, and their impacts on communities and local economies.

    • Performing arts within creative and cultural industries.

  7. Archiving, documentation, and curatorial practices

    • Audio-visual documentation, digital archiving, and community-based archives of performance.

    • Curatorial practices for exhibitions, festivals, site-specific works, and cross-institutional collaborations involving Melanesian performance.

  8. Interdisciplinary and theoretical approaches

    • Theoretical, methodological, and comparative work on performance in Melanesia.

    • Interdisciplinary dialogues between performance and fields such as environmental humanities, religious studies, history, sociology, linguistics, and visual arts.