Adorned by Nature talk by Wolfgang Grulke

At the evenings gets colder, Oborne Village Hall has invited author Wolfgang Grulke to warm us up with tales of the tropical South Pacific. Wolfgang is well known for his award-wining books on the subject of his fossil collection that has been visited by many locals. Now, he has turned his attention to the islands of the South Pacific – specifically to the myriad of local cultures and myths, and how these are celebrated in festivals, using spectacular adornments – highly valued by tribal art collectors worldwide.

Their cultures were shaped over centuries by Chinese, Arab and Malay traders, European missionaries and soldiers fighting the ‘War in the Pacific’ on their lands.

“ As my wife and I explored and dived the remote islands of the South Seas, we would witness some of the most diverse reefs on the planet, meet people who spoke more than 1000 languages, and listen to tribal elders who remembered the taste of human flesh”, explains Wolfgang, “Normally, when we think of jewellery, we think of gold and precious stones, but on these islands they do not have access to metals and precious stones, so they have crafted the most wonderful adornments solely from the natural materials around them. My new book Adorned by Nature tells that story and our adventures in researching the book”.