Description
This paper engages with politics of ‘presence’ and ‘absence’ in the context of religious transnationalism. It looks at how migrants from Papua New Guinea (PNG) are ‘relocating’ PNG Catholic shrines and ritual celebrations to Australia in order to celebrate their National Patron Saint, the Blessed Peter To Rot. In relocating rituals, regalia and images associated with Peter To Rot, migrants generate ‘belonging’, as well as new connections and communities, fostered through the circulation of specific material religion, such as soil from Peter To Rot’s empty grave and water from a nearby cave. The paper will address how these materialities and associated rituals are meant to convey and mobilise the Blessed Peter To Rot’s presence and intervention, while his human remains are still in PNG, and hence, absent in the diaspora. At the same time, this paper shows how customary notions, practices and materialities are conflated with Catholic ones, often much to the disapproval of Catholic clergy and the Catholic Church in general, while Catholic practices contradict and cause tensions with local customary ideas about the treatment of human remains.| Period | 3 Jun 2022 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Material and Immaterial in Motion: 13th ESfO Conference The European Society for Oceanists |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Ajaccio, FranceShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |