BY ANDREA WILLIAMS

 
JULIANNE ROSS ALLCORN has created an artwork for a silent auction to be held at next Sunday’s commemorative luncheon of the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Society.

The artwork honours those people lost in the Japanese invasion of the New Guinea islands in 1942 and contributes to the fundraising for the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Memorial at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Photographed just prior to framing under glass in a beech frame, this original artwork shows the islands of Papua New Guinea with a Papua New Guinean face gazing out towards the viewer.

The known names of all those who died or who were killed in the islands and on the Montevideo Maru, and of those missing, have been painstakingly handwritten and appear as the currents of the sea.

With no definitive list to work from, missing names are represented by the following symbols:

Chinese: ceramic ginger jar
Norwegians: MV Herstein
Papua New Guineans: canoe, bush knife, kundu, Dukduk, bilum
Soldiers: slouch and tin hats; Wirraway aircraft
Missionaries: cross and rosary beads
Escape boats- lakatoi and MV Laurabada
Japanese: samurai sword

In the corner is a miniature drawing of the American flag (waving in reverse).

A raised silhouette of the Montevideo Maru cut out of Japanese rice paper sits atop the creation.

Phone bids will be taken between 3.10pm and 3.20pm prior to the silent auction closing on Saturday 2 July 2011.

Bidders will need to pre-register their details by Friday 1 July 2011 on 0409 031 889.