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Established | 1964 |
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Location | 27 Avondale Rd, Cooranbong |
Type | Museum |
Nearest car park | On site |
Website | www.ssimuseum.adventistconnect.org |
In 1964 The South Sea Islands Museum was founded to display artefacts collected by Seventh day Adventist missionaries, who began in 1886 and expanded across the whole Oceanic region from the Pitcairn Islands to Papua New Guinea, and from Kiribati to New Zealand. Additional records from the hundred or so years of time spent in the region are kept at the Adventist Heritage Centre which is located on the Avondale College of Higher Education campus in Cooranbong[1]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/The_Entrance_to_the_South_Seas_Islands_Museum_01.jpg/220px-The_Entrance_to_the_South_Seas_Islands_Museum_01.jpg)
History
Historical records in the South Seas Islands are very limited before the eighteen hundreds as they were a predominately Oral culture. Because of this the culture practices and artefacts recorded and collected by the missionaries provide significant insight into a history and culture that could have been lost. The initial museum was hosted in the Australasian Missionary College chapel but after some time it was decided to house the growing collection in a building of its own, adjacent Sunnyside Historical House.[2]
Collections
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Polynesian_War_Canoe.jpg/220px-Polynesian_War_Canoe.jpg)
The Melanesians, Micronesians, and Polynesians are the main focus. The content of the museum cycles regularly, and one half includes various themed exhibitions throughout the year. [3]
The arrival of the Solomon Islands War Canoe in 1968 was announced in the (Sat, August 24, 1968) Sydney Morning Herald as:
Giant War Canoe Arrives
Once used for savage head-hunting raids in the Solomon Islands, this 52ft war canoe arrived in Sydney yesterday, carefully "bandaged" in sacking as protection against souvenir hunters. The canoe was unloaded from the Burns Philp Freighter, Tulagi at Walsh Bay and will eventually be displayed at the Seventh Day Adventist Church's South Pacific Island museum at Cooranbong, 80 miles north of Sydney. [4]
The other example images of items on display in the South Sea Islands Museum are part of larger collections donated to the museum.
Operation
The museum is located two kilometers from the Avondale College campus at 27 Avondale Rd on the same premises as Sunnyside Historic Home. The museum is free for general admission and is open Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday, 1400 to 1600, or by appointment [5].