Birds of paradise were a popular trade item, especially between 1880 and 1930. The most important market was the fashion world in cities such as Paris, New York, London, Berlin and Amsterdam. Tens of thousands of birds were shot, transported from former German and Dutch New Guinea and sold as hat decorations. For Catholic missionaries, this trade provided much-needed income but would have been impossible without the knowledge of local hunters. In this talk, Marc Argeloo, a renowned expert on this topic, explored the cultural and economic significance as well as the role of indigenous knowledge in this trade.
Marc Argeloo has been studying birds of paradise and the trade in these animals since 1993. The results provide a fascinating picture of how Asia and Europe have been connected for millennia, and have culminated in the exhibition 'Birds of God' in the Mission Museum in Steyl (until September 1, 2024). Marc Argeloo is also the author of the acclaimed book Natuuramnesie which studies processes of collective amnesia (and memory) with regard to biodiversity and landscape transformation.
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