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Ron Perry

Ron Perry grew up in Tucson, AZ. He dropped out of the University of Arizona to surf and dive in Hawaii and Australia. After he returned from serving with the US Army in Korea, he hitchhiked through India, Iran, Pakistan, Afganistan, Nepal, and a good portion of Southeast Asia before returning to Australia.

A friend got him interested in New Guinea and in 1964, he made his first trip to the Papua New Guinea side which was then under Australian administration. The country fascinated him.

He worked there off and on for the next 14 years: surveying, managing a sawmill and trade store, running the first tour boat on the Sepik River, working for the Papua New Guinea National Cultural Council after Independence, and collecting artifacts as well as investing in various enterprises in Australia.

In 1979, he returned to Tucson to live while still making yearly trips to Australia and Papua New Guinea. He also traveled extensively through Mexico and Central and South America before fulfilling a lifelong ambition to explore Irian Jaya, the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea.

In 1988, Ron, Carolyn and their friends, the Patania's, traveled the mountain highlands of Irian and canoed the swamps of the Asmat. They then explored more of Indonesia, including Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Bali and many of the other islands. In 1996, he and Carolyn explored the southwest tribal areas of China.

Ron continues to be actively involved in traveling, collecting and trading tribal art, primarily from Papua New Guinea.


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Browse OCEANIC ART:

Melanesian art TOC | Map of art areas of Melanesia
Papua New Guinea: Highlands: body art - Bundi tapa - jewelry/dancers | Karawari and Blackwater Rivers: masks - carvings - map | Massim: artifacts- Trobriand Kula - map | Kula canoe | New Britain: Baining - Sulka - Tolai dukduk | New Ireland: Malagan | Ramu River: masks - carvings - map | Sepik River: masks - carvings - villages - map | Papuan Gulf: masks - carvings - map - Gogodala - Kukukuku
other areas: Asmat | Solomon Islands: crafts - jewelry - map
art and craft: barkcloth (tapa) | body art | cane and fiber figures | canoes and prows | jewelry/dancers | masks - Middle Sepik | phallocrypts | pottery - Chambri | shields | story boards | suspension hooks | weapons | yam masks - fiber | yam masks - wood

INDONESIAN ART:
Indonesian art TOC | Dyak baby carriers and masks | furniture | Java folk art | Lombok baskets | Lombok lontar boxes | masks from Bali and Java | puppets

CHINA - BAI TEXTILES:
China-Bai textiles TOC | baby carriers | baby hats | woodblock prints

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Photographs, text and maps copyright © Carolyn Leigh, 1996-2010. All rights reserved.
http://www.art-pacific.com/apwho/ronperry.htm
Contact Us
Artifacts on this site are collected in the field by my husband, Ron Perry. I take the photographs, do the html, text and maps. More background in Who We Are. Art-Pacific has been on the WWW since 1996. We hope you enjoy our New Guinea tribal art and Indonesian folk art as much as we do. Carolyn Leigh, P.O. Box 85284, Tucson, AZ 85754-5284 USA, Art-Pacific at http://www.art-pacific.com/