Obituary: Roger Boulay (1943—2024)

Roger Boulay (1943–2024) devoted the majority of his professional life to building an inventory of Kanak material culture from New Caledonia. In 1979, Jean-Marie Tjibaou had passed the idea for this project on to Boulay, who immediately set to work in New Caledonia and in European museums. In 1982, he became a part-time curator at the National Museum of the Arts of Africa and Oceania in Paris, and began reorganizing that museum collection and its displays. In subsequent years he created or co-commissioned an amazing variety of exhibitions, in Paris, Nouméa, and elsewhere. He often looked at objects from unexpected angles, preferring the critical eye of the craftsman he had been. From 1993 to 1998, Boulay worked in Nouméa as a member of the team that was key to bringing the Centre Culturel Tjibaou to functioning. Roger Boulay passed away on July 2, 2024.