The Riḡorabana, The Balawaia is an immersive exhibition that explores Melanesian heritage, environmental processes, and the transmission of Indigenous knowledge through the lens of both ancestral and diasporic experiences. Weaving together familial storytelling, fieldwork, and cultural practices from Papua Niugini, the project interprets local mythologies surrounding the caves and boulders deep within the sacred mountain of Lamana Golo, where sorcerers are initiated. Centred on these sacred sites, where Ansell’s ancestors evolved, the project also connects local beliefs to natural weathering processes that mirror cultural transformation over time. Through soundscape and embodied performance, the story of the Riḡorabana and the Balawaia is told.
In a recent visit to his ancestral homelands, Ansell observed the profound relationship between land, culture, and community. The exhibition examines material change as a metaphor for learning, where knowledge is gained through interaction with the land. Just as clay cracks, metals rust, and salt crystals form—signs of adaptation and continuity—so too does wisdom pass down through generations. Nature, in this way, is not merely a resource, but a partner in life, shaping and preserving indigenous wisdom. By weaving together natural weathering processes with traditional knowledge, the exhibition suggests that indigenous wisdom is etched into the land itself, reinforcing the idea that stories and the environment are intrinsically intertwined.
Artefacts of Pacifika labour found in Papua Niugini have been reimagined as sculptures and playable instruments. Spanning soundscape, video projection, and embodied performance, this constructed natural environment will be the grounds for a story of the Riḡorabana and the Balawaia to be told.
Ansell has consulted with members of [his] family and Elders in the Balawaia community about this project and they have advised [him] that the cultural practices and ceremonies that have been documented and will be displayed are permitted and can be experienced by all.
Dean Ansell is a multidisciplinary artist of Melanesian (Riḡorabana, Balawaia, Papua Niugini), Maltese, and Anglo-Celtic descent, based in Meanjin, Australia. His practice connects his cultural heritage to material processes that harness his body and the environment. Spanning installation, soundscape, and embodied performance, Ansell interprets Melanesian mythologies and rituals. Poetically correlating inherited knowledge with his personal experiences of cultural displacement, Ansell’s work is an expression of the complexities of his Melanesian diasporic experience.
