Collecting, Exhibiting and Engaging with East Polynesia at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
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Tuhinga 24: 105–138 Copyright © Te Papa Museum of New Zealand (2013) Collecting, exhibiting and engaging with East Polynesia at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Sean Mallon* and Grace Hutton** * Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, PO Box 467, Wellington, New Zealand ([email protected]) ** Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, PO Box 467, Wellington, New Zealand ([email protected]) ABSTRACT: The Pacific Cultures collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa) holds significant artefacts from the islands of East Polynesia, including the Austral Islands, Society Islands, Marquesas Islands, Tuamotu Archipelago, Pitcairn Island and Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Some artefacts are important because of their historical association with the voyages of eighteenth-century English explorer James Cook. Others are less well documented but of outstanding aesthetic quality and once belonged to the early twentieth-century English collector William Oldman. In this survey article, we describe the holdings of East Polynesian material culture in Te Papa and argue for their relevance in the national museum of New Zealand. We also examine other holdings in Te Papa that have associations with East Polynesia, and outline a short history of outreach and engagement with communities from this region. KEYWORDS: East Polynesia, material culture, Austral Islands, Society Islands, Marquesas Islands, Pitcairn Island, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Te Papa, Tahiti, James Cook, William Oldman. Introduction Rapa Nui (Easter Island). We do not cover the Tuamotu Archipelago or Mangareva (Gambier) Islands, as there are Given New Zealand’s twentieth-century colonial ties to the no cultural artefacts from these locations at Te Papa. relatively close islands of Samoa, Niue and the Cook Islands, Although East Polynesia also includes the Cook Islands, it may appear that the other islands of East Polynesia would Hawai‘i and New Zealand, an article surveying the Cook be peripheral to the future development of the Pacific Islands collection has already been published (Hutton et al. Cultures collections at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa 2010) and an article about the Hawai‘i collection is in Tongarewa (Te Papa). However, the recent history of col- preparation for 2014. We examine the develop ment of these lecting activity and the display of material culture from East collections across a chronology begin ning in the late Polynesian societies proves otherwise. East Polynesia has an nineteenth century and ending in the twenty-first century. important role in telling the New Zealand story as well as the Key accessions and individual objects or groups of objects are familiar stories relating to the broader history of the arts, highlighted – some for their formal qualities, others for exploration and cultural encounter in the Pacific Islands. their histories. We include an emphasis on accessions made This article is organised in two parts. First, we survey Te between 1990 and 2012. This period coincides with the Papa’s East Polynesia collection holdings by each individual develop ment of Te Papa and initiatives to increase island group.1 The island territories and groups we cover in contempor ary collecting.2 This focus allows us to present this article are French Polynesia (Austral Islands, Society new examples of material culture to the academic literature Islands and Marquesas Islands), the Pitcairn Islands and and visual record. 106 Tuhinga, Number 24 (2013) Second, we examine Te Papa’s deployment of these descriptions, measurements, provenance, storage locations, collections in the museum’s activities. Our emphasis is on key terms of association to assist online and database how the societies and cultures of East Polynesia have been searching, and the updating of accession lot records. In represented in other Te Papa collections, the museum’s events addition, a digital photographic record of each object was programmes, exhibitions, publications and community out- taken and added to the museum’s Collections online data - reach activities. We argue that the collections from islands far base.4 The Cook Islands collections were the first to undergo to the east have been, and continue to be, important in the this process, followed by the Niue collections (Hutton et al. context of New Zealand’s national museum. They play a 2010; Akeli & Pasene 2011). This is the third article to be critical role informing what we know of New Zealand’s developed from this ongoing survey. settlement, its long history of interaction with the region and its contemporary history. This article contributes to a literature that explores archaeological dimensions of that Collecting East Polynesia interaction, nineteenth- and twentieth-century connections, The most historically significant items of material culture and contemporary social and cultural developments.3 from East Polynesia in Te Papa were collected by European It is only since 1993 that Te Papa has managed its Pacific seafarers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They treasures as a separate collection. For most of the institu- found their way into private collections and institutions in tion’s history (as the Colonial Museum from 1865 to 1907, the United Kingdom and returned to the Pacific and New the Dominion Museum from 1907 to 1972, the National Zealand in the twentieth century, when acquired by the Museum from 1972 to 1992, and Te Papa from 1993 to museum. The key accessions of artefacts have come from present), Pacific items formed a significant part of what England from Lord St Oswald (1912), William Oldman was called the Foreign Ethnology collection. As currently (1948) and the Imperial Institute (1955). The collections defined, the Pacific Cultures collection consists of about from Lord St Oswald and the Imperial Institute include 13,000 items, encompassing both historical and contempo - material culture associated with the voyages of English rary material from the Pacific Islands, including Papua New explorer James Cook, who undertook three scientific expedi- Guinea but excluding Indonesia, the Philippines and tions into the Pacific. The first voyage was from 1768 to Australia. An exception is made for the Torres Strait Islands, 1771, the second from 1772 to 1775, and the third from which are part of Australia but culturally more aligned to 1776 to 1780. The objects in Te Papa associated with these Papua New Guinea. The Pacific Cultures collection has voyages are well documented by Kaeppler (1974, 1978),and been shaped by changing institutional and curatorial in part by Livingstone (1998) and Davidson (1991, 2004, priorities, which in turn have been influenced by the history 2012). They include adornments, fishhooks, tools and of New Zealand as a Pacific nation, the roles that New textiles from the Pacific and its rim. The objects associated Zealanders have played in the Pacific Islands and the migra - with Cook often attract the most international interest from tion of Pacific peoples to New Zealand in recent decades. researchers, curators and cultural groups. They are key What began in the nineteenth century as a comparative artefacts both in the history of European exploration and in collection of ethnographic ‘specimens’ – objects collected the cultural history of indigenous peoples.5 The Oldman during the scientific study of peoples and cultures – has collection is less well documented. broadened to include contemporary works by known artists. Former Te Papa Pacific curator Janet Davidson6 published This expansion of the collection’s scope has tended to blur a short history of the Pacific collections (Davidson 1991) the boundaries between the Pacific Cultures, Matauranga that includes details about these accessions. In brief sum - Mäori, History and Art collections. Since the late 1980s, mary, she records that Lord St Oswald unexpectedly there has been a sustained focus on collecting the art and presented his family collection to the Dominion of New material culture of Pacific peoples living in New Zealand Zealand in 1912. As mentioned previously, a highlight of his (Davidson & Mallon 2004). collection are artefacts collected on the three voyages into the In 2008, the Pacific Cultures team commenced a survey Pacific by James Cook. They include the ‘ahu ula (cloak) and of Te Papa’s Pacific Cultures collection. This process included mahiole (helmet) presented to Cook by the Hawai‘ian chief recording or upgrading object information such as Kalani‘opu ‘u on 26 January 1779. The objects in the Collecting, exhibiting and engaging with East Polynesia at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 107 Fig.1 W.O. Oldman with his collection at his Clapham villa, London, England, c.1940 (photo: Te Papa O.027324). collection were gathered together by an English collector are regarded as treasures that connect us with the history of named William Bullock (Kaeppler 1974). Some of them he European exploration in the Pacific but also with our Pacific acquired directly from Joseph Banks, a scientist who was and Mäori ancestors. part of Cook’s first expedition. He purchased others from In 1948, the New Zealand government purchased the private collectors, and from the sale of the Leverian Museum Mäori and Pacific collection of the London dealer William collection in London in 1806. Bullock displayed them in his Ockelford Oldman (Fig.1). Today, the collection is known own museum in London until 1819, when he sold his entire internationally as the Oldman collection and is recognised collection. The items now in Te Papa were bought by as world class by overseas collectors and connoisseurs. In the Charles Winn (1795?–1874) for his private collection. They 1940s, New Zealand academics petitioned the government stayed with the Winn family for nearly a century. In 1912, to buy the collection. Their vision was to make New Zealand Charles Winn’s grandson, Rowland Winn, 2nd Baron St the main centre for studying Mäori and Polynesian artefacts. Oswald (1857–1919), gave them ‘to the Dominion of The government’s decision in 1948, to purchase the 3100 New Zealand’.