When Charles Lepani, Papua New Guinea's High Commissioner to Australia, told Keith Jackson he wanted a
suitable occasion to present one of his nation's highest honours to a Sydney artist, the Jackson
Wells team sprang into action.
In September last year the PNG
Government announced that Australian artist and sculptor, Hal Holman OAM, had
been awarded the Order of Logohu for his work which included designing the PNG national
crest and greatly influencing the design of the country's flag.
The Order of Logohu is PNG highest
national award. Logohu means bird of paradise in Motu, the main language of
Papua. The bird of paradise is central to both the crest and the national flag
and has long been a major theme in Hal Holman's art and sculpture.
The Thornleigh-based octogenarian,
who is still active in the arts, has paintings and sculptures in many
significant collections. His works are displayed in many public spaces in Australia and PNG.
Keith Jackson advised Mr Lepani that
a group of Australians with PNG and media connections, including Hal Holman, regularly
met for lunch in Sydney
and that the forthcoming lunch would provide a suitable occasion for the
presentation.
I've known Hal since the 1970s when I
worked with Keith at the National Broadcasting Commission in Port Moresby, and got the publicity gig - drafting
a media release and organising media coverage. This ranged from Radio Australia,
the Post-Courier and National newspapers in Port Moresby and ABC
Radio News to the weekly community paper covering Thornleigh in Sydney's north.
Hal had first arrived in PNG during
World War II as a commando with the AIF. He operated behind Japanese lines on
the mainland and was attached to the American marines who liberated Rabaul.
Upon demobilisation, he used his government grant to earn a Diploma of Art at
East Sydney Tech.
He moved to Port Moresby in the early 1960s, initially
working as an illustrator with the Department of Education and later as senior
artist for the PNG Government. It was in this capacity that he designed the national
crest and set the parameters for the national flag contest.
Hal also designed and illustrated
innumerable maps, posters, pamphlets and publications while continuing to
produce numerous portraits and paintings of the bird of paradise. He even
designed the uniforms for the PNG Constabulary Band.
After leaving PNG in the 1970s, he
turned to sculpture, producing a one-tonne metal National Crest for the PNG
Supreme Court building, bronzes of all six PNG Prime Ministers since
Independence, a bust of Queen Elizabeth II and many examples of public
sculpture around Sydney.
Hal was awarded the Order of
Australia in 2004 for service to the arts as a designer and sculptor.
The nuggetty artist arrived at the
lunch wearing his commando uniform to prove to his old Port Moresby friends that he was still as
trim as ever.