Don Niles
OPINION: PORT MORESBY (The National / Pacific Media Watch): How do you honour a man who has devoted a huge portion his life to filming Papua New Guinea’s tremendous cultural diversity, assisting others also involved in such activities and teaching others to do likewise?
Anyone familiar with filmmaking in PNG for the last 40 odd years knows that the person concerned is Chris Owen.
On August 30, the PNG High Commissioner to Australia, Charles Lepani, presented a medal to Owen in Canberra. He did so, on behalf of the Governor-General of PNG, Grand Chief Sir Michael Ogio, and by command of Queen Elizabeth II.
Chris was made an Officer of the Order of Logohu (OL) “for services to the community through his significant contribution over 37 years in the documentation in films of PNG’s rich cultural diversity and the social participation in the different levels of the country’s traditional and modern values.”
Chris Owen was born in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Attending school in both the UK and Australia, he eventually studied at Birmingham College of Art and Design, and obtained a Graduate Diploma in Visual Communication (photojournalism/cinematography) in 1971. After returning to Australia for a couple years, he came to PNG as a cinematographer, sound recordist, creative photographer, and display artist with the Tourist Board in 1973-75.
In 1976, he joined the newly established Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies (IPNGS) as the resident filmmaker. He was tasked with designing and initiating an ethnographic filmmaking programme, documenting and preserving Melanesian culture on film, and providing professional training for Papua New Guinean filmmakers.
He remained at IPNGS until 2000 when he transferred to Goroka to eventually be¬come the Director of the National Film Institute (NFI). In addition to the tasks he had at IPNGS, Chris now also had to rebuild the NFI, which had been destroyed by fire in 1996, when it was called Skul bilong Wokim Piksa.
He also mentored a team of Melanesian filmmakers, and worked to protect the nation’s contemporary history on moving images. Chris remained at NFI in Goroka until medical conditions forced him to retire in July 2010.
Chris is the filmmaker of some of the most well-known and respected films concerning the people of PNG, including: The Red Bowmen, Gogodala: A Cultural Revival?, Malangan Labadama: A Tribute to Buk Buk, Tukana: Husat i Asua?, Man without Pigs, Bridewealth for a God¬dess, Lukautim Bus, Betelnut Bisnis, and Kirapim Wok Piksa Hia long PNG. There are many more.
In addition to his own films, Chris has collaborated with other local and overseas filmmakers as cinematographer, line producer, sound recordist, editor, and/ or script advisor. This has included work in such films as: Yumi Yet, Angels of War, The Sharkcallers of Kontu, First Contact, Anthropology on Trial, Cowboy and Maria, Cannibal Tours, Joe Leahy’s Neighbours, Black Harvest, Napalunga, and Strong Connections, among many others.
Chris’s filmmaking has never been about simply doing his job. It is safe to say that just about his whole life revolves around filmmaking. This is not just dedication, this is total commitment-the kind of involvement very few people give to any aspect of their lives.
Chris presently lives in Canberra, where archival restoration and preservation of Papua New Guinea’s heritage on film and video remains at the core of his ongoing concerns. This includes the national repatriation of digital copies of all PNG-related film and television artefacts held in overseas institutions.
PNG filmmaker Martin Maden has said of Chris: “I do not know of one other culture whose children will inherit a film heritage such as the one Chris Owen has given to the people of Papua New Guinea.”
Frequently honoured overseas with awards for his filmmaking, it was absolutely appropriate that he be officially acknowledged here as well.
Chris’s name was listed amongst those people receiving 2011 New Year’s honours. However, he was unable to attend the investiture ceremony to receive his medal because of his medical condition, and it was unclear when he would be able to travel to Port Moresby again.
For this reason, his award was sent to the High Commission in Canberra to be presented there.
All of his colleagues here and internationally are thrilled that Papua New Guinea has decided to honour Chris in this way. There is no one more deserving of recognition for such extraordinary, long-lasting contributions.
Mipela i amamas long yu, Chris!
Dr Don Niles is acting director and senior ethnomusicologist of the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies. He is honoured to be Chris’s colleague and friend.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Pacific Media Watch
