Lissant Bolton
Section Head, Oceania
Oceanic (Pacific and Australian)
collections
Department: Africa, Oceania and the
Americas
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7323 8047
Email: lbolton @ thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
Lissant Bolton is an anthropologist who specialises in the
Pacific. Her research focusses on gender and kastom in Vanuatu, and
on the indigenous use of collections and cultural
knowledge. She has a specific interest in textiles.
She has worked in Vanuatu annually since 1989, collaborating
with the Vanuatu Cultural Centre (VKS) www.vanuatuculture.org in the
development of programmes to document and revive women’s knowledge
and practice. This programme, the Women’s Culture Project, holds
annual training workshops for ni-Vanuatu women extension workers,
which Bolton chairs for the VKS. She has made a number of films
with the VKS for use in Vanuatu.
Bolton lead-curated the permanent gallery Living and
Dying (2003), and curated the exhibition Power and Taboo:
Sacred Objects from the Pacific (2006), both for the British
Museum. She previously worked for the Australian Museum
Sydney and for the Australian National University. She has
undertaken a series of major research projects, the last two with
colleagues from London University.
Current British Museum projects
Previous British Museum projects
Clothing the Pacific (Joint research project with University
College, London and Goldsmiths College, University of London)
External fellowships/ honorary positions/ membership of professional bodies
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Publications
Most recent publications
L. Bolton, 'The museum as cultural agent: the Vanuatu Cultural
Centre extension worker program', in C. Healy, and A.
Witcomb (eds.) South Pacific Museums: Experiments in
Culture (Melbourne: Monash University ePress, 2006)
L. Bolton, 'Dressing for Transition:
Weddings, Clothing and Change in Vanuatu', in S.
Kuechler and G. Were (eds.), Pacific Clothing: the Art of
Experience (London: UCL Press, 2005) pp. 19-32
L. Bolton, 'The effect of objects: the return
of a north Vanuatu textile from the Australian Museum to the
Vanuatu Cultural Centre', in V.Attenbrow and R.Fullagar
(eds.) A Pacific Odyssey: Archaeology and Anthropology in the
Western Pacific. Papers in Honour of Jim Specht
Records of the Australian Museum,
Supplement 29. (Sydney: Australian Museum, 2004) pp.
31-36
L. Bolton, Unfolding the moon: Enacting
Women's Kastom in Vanuatu (Honolulu: University of
Hawai’i Press, 2003)
L, Bolton, 'Living and Dying',
British Museum Magazine, 47 (Winter
2003) pp. 34-37