Faovale Imperium

“Think of Pitt Rivers as a pit,” begins Samoan/Welsh artist and performer James Nokise in front of a small group of people crowding the museum's balcony. The Pitt Rivers Museum, in all its glory, is suddenly reduced to a pit of stuff trying very hard to be “multicultural.” Our attention is then diverted to the vitrine to our left. One sees the image of contemporary Indigenous Australian artist Christian Thompson behind a mask of Captain James Cook looking straight ahead at some of the objects collected by Cook during his voyages in Oceania. “Let's hear from Cook,” says Nokise addressing Thompson's image while he drops the books in his hand in exaggerated frustration. Together with DJ Don Luchito, he begins the performance by questioning Cook, his “collecting,” and the foundation of the ethnographic museum as we know it today.