News of sacred Tubuan Masks kept inthe National Museum and Art Gallery in Port Moresby has not gone down well withthe Tubuan Society.
Members ofthe society, including Minister for Mining Beron Chan frontedthe Museum to reclaim two Masks which had been presented tothe Museum by Tanga islanders of New Ireland province on Sunday.
The society saysthe masks are sacred objects and should never be displayed publicly.
The members gthered includedthe Namatanai, East West coast and Islands of Tanga and Anir ready to take back whatthey believe rightfully belong tothem.
Waiting for them atthe museum wasthe Minister for Culture and Tourism Beka Kondra, Museum Director Dr. Andrew Moutu, and thers including Chief Cletus Ngaffin responsible for handingthe masks over tothe museum.
The members explainedthe significance ofthe masks and placed two bundles of shell money onthe ground and two 100 kina bills – a symbol thatthey wantthe mask returned.
However, Chief Ngaffin defended his action statingthe masks belonged to him.
Director ofthe National Museum Dr. Moutu asked thatthe issue be solved privately.
Meantime, Minister Kondra apologized for the insensitive on his part.
The ultimatum bythe group was final,they wantedthe masks returned. Thus,their custom and tradition was respected so a custom towards returningthe masks was conducted with exchanging ofthe mimis and 200 kina tothe museum.
EMTV was not allowed to filmthe masks being removerd fromthe Museum and returned back tothe people; it’s a taboothey said.
The masks were loaded onto a vehicle hidden from view bythe men.
Chief Ngaffin disagreed and saidthe masks should have been removerd by his group. The factions will however try to solvetheir differences privately.
This is notthe first timethe Museum has encountered conflict over sacred objects of cultural significance.
