Vessels of Knowledge: Asmat Art and the Return of Ancestral Voices

September 26, 2026 - May 15, 2027

A Living Collaboration

This exhibition documents a partnership between the American Museum of Asmat Art (AMAA) at the University of St. Thomas and the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress (AMCP) in Agats, Papua (Indonesia). Both collections were founded by the American Crosier Fathers and Brothers under the leadership of Bishop Alphonse Sowada, whose decades of service shaped an enduring commitment to Asmat art and culture.

Building on that legacy, we are digitizing and sharing vital archives from the Asmat region, ensuring that cultural knowledge survives despite a challenging rainforest environment that threatens fragile physical records.

At the heart of this initiative is visual repatriation: the digital return of historical and cultural documents to Asmat communities. Just as Asmat art objects serve as vessels that carry ancestral voices across generations, these digital archives preserve and return cultural memory to its source. While no formal repatriation claims have been made on the AMAA collection, we believe that responsibly sharing images, stories, and archives is essential for ethical museum practice and reciprocal engagement. Our colleagues at the AMCP await these resources to support their own preservation and educational initiatives.

Students at the Center

University of St. Thomas students make this possible. Through a collaboration with the Museum Studies program, they digitized nearly 1,000 archival records, created metadata, and researched collections alongside faculty, staff, and our contacts in Asmat.

This project, supported by an Elevating the Arts grant through the College of Arts and Sciences and funding from the Department of Art History and Visual Culture, has deepened their understanding of the responsibilities that guide contemporary museum work, expanded their knowledge of Asmat art, and prepared them to contribute original scholarship to the field.

Special Thanks

AMAA: Elevating the Arts Leadership Team

AMAA: Asmat Myth Intern (Department of Art History and Visual Culture)

Dr. Amy Nygaard (Museum Studies Program Director & Elevating the Arts Project Co-Leader)

Christine Dent (Visual Resources Curator)

Michelle Boris (Graduate Student)

AMAA: Elevating the Arts Assistants (Department of Art History and Visual Culture)

Mira Chaudhry, Olive Gravelle, & Karlie Shaffer (Undergraduate Students)

Rachel Chow & Erin Mably (Graduate Students)

Past Exhibitions

  • This exhibition celebrated the potential for art to transcend boundaries by connecting people, ideas, and disciplines across time and place. That potential was showcased through innovative projects that merge Asmat art with diverse fields of study at the University of St. Thomas.

  • Not a Blank Canvas was an investigative documentary project by National Geographic photographer, Joshua Irwandi. It focused on the consequences of development within the Asmat region of West Papua (Indonesia). The exhibition featured Irwandi’s photographs paired with objects from the American Museum of Asmat Art (AMAA) collection.

  • From the frigid Arctic to the tropical island of New Guinea, the Department of Art History Gallery and the American Museum of Asmat Art presented a join exhibition, CHANGE, that considered the impact of climate change through an artistic lens.

    Animals in Asmat by illustrator, Sarah Nelson, were featured in this exhibition.

  • July 12, 2022 - May 13, 2023

    This exhibition explores the many ways Asmat people engage with water. It considers how relationships between animals, humans, and the ancestors are formed around this natural resource and encourages museum visitors to consider their own connections with water. 

    Why is water important? Water is a force that shapes many aspects of physical and spiritual life. In the Asmat rainforest, water is omnipresent. It is collected for daily needs and sustains complex rivers systems that are essential for transportation, trade, and recreation. Water is a recurring element in ritual practices and figures prominently in myths that are essential to Asmat cosmology. Many of these practices are currently under threat due to social and environmental changes in the region. Visual culture on display at the American Museum of Asmat Art tells part of this story.Item description

  • July 6, 2021 - May 15, 2022

    This exhibition celebrated the lives and artistic skills of Asmat women. For generations, fiber artists from this region have created works that are intertwined with their rituals and daily lives. This exhibition presented traditional weavings while examining innovative techniques and new materials contemporary artists use to enhance their own styles while fulfilling the demands of a changing art market.

  • September 4, 2019 - May 14, 2021

    Regions and Rituals explored the ways Catholic missionaries have influenced Asmat art as they worked to protect artistic expression in the cultural regions of Bismam, Becembub, Safan, and Unir Sirau.

  • June 2 - December 1st, 2019

    Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport

    Thomson Reuters Concourse C Gallery

    This exhibition featured a selection of objects from the American Museum of Asmat Art that demonstrated the common humanity of global peoples through art.

  • September 5, 2018 - July 31, 2019

    The Decorated World explored the ways Asmat artists celebrate everyday life through the adornment of functional objects and portrayal of daily activities.

  • January 29 - July 31, 2018

    This exhibition examined ancestors in Asmat culture and the art forms and ceremonies that help their spirits find sanctuary in safan - the land of the ancestors.

  • September 5 - December 22, 2017

    This AMAA exhibition explored the history of the museum, its collections, and the remarkable individuals who assembled it.

  • January 30 - July 31, 2017

    This exhibit celebrated the diverse sacred arts, rituals, and activities associated with the Asmat yeu (ceremonial house).

  • September 6 - December 21, 2016

    Traveling Distant Waters compared and Contrasted the functional, historical, and spiritual roles of canoes among the Asmat people of New Guinea and in the Upper Midwest.

  • February 1 - July 31, 2016

    This exhibition featured objects that illustrated how artistic elements have evolved or remained consistent in Asmat.

  • September 2 - December 22, 2015

    From birth to death and beyond, Transition and Contemplation examined how Asmat art forms both commemorate and cause individuals and communities to reflect upon the transitional events in their lives.

  • February 2 - July 31, 2015

    This exhibition explored the diverse roles, images, and meanings of animals in Asmat art and culture.

  • April 1 - December 19, 2014

    Museums and Mission examined the influence of Vatican II on American Crosier Missionary work in Asmat.

  • September 4 - December 20

    Among the Asmat examined the collection activities of Tobias Schneebaum, an artist and anthropologist that working in the Asmat region during the 1970s and 1980s.

  • September 4 - December 21, 2012

    This exhibition explores how the American Museum of Asmat Art has grown since it came to campus in 2007.

  • February 15 - June 24, 2012

    This exhibition explored the fluid, multifaceted identity of Asmat culture through carvings, weavings, photographs, and videos.

  • February 14 - June 14, 2009

    This exhibition featured a selection of pieces from the AMAA and focused on the changing visual language in the Asmat region.