The Royal Ontario Museum's Asia-Pacific Collection

The Royal Ontario Museum’s Asia-Pacific Collection

Brittany Myburgh and Ellen Zhang, University of Toronto

The Africa, Americas, and Asia-Pacific collection housed by the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) boasts over 1,400 artifacts produced over a span of two thousand years. The Asia-Pacific region within the ROM’s collection is described as geographically spanning Oceania and Southeast Asia.1 The collection itself is filled with objects of merit; there are many examples of tapa cloth, jewellery, carvings, taonga, and functional artifacts. Yet, the amalgamation of distinct geographic zones raises problems in the exhibition and display of this material culture. The display of these items and the narratives that they convey could be problematized and enhanced through an engagement with current museum methodologies for representing Asia and the Pacific.

The Oceanic Collection

Objects obtained by Canadian missionaries appear throughout the Oceanic collection at the Royal Ontario Museum. Donations from Rev. Joseph Annand (1844 – 1932) were central in establishing the foundation of archaeologist and curator David Boyle’s ethnological collection at the Toronto Normal School.2 David Boyle was later appointed curator at the ROM’s precursor, the Ontario Provincial Museum, and in 1933 his collection was transferred to the ROM.

1 Throughout this article we use the terms for geographic regions as employed by the Royal Ontario Museum in exhibition labels. 2 For further information on the history of this collection see: Arthur Smith, “Curios' from a Strange Land: The Oceania Collections of the Reverend Joseph Annand” in eds. Alvyn Austin and Jamie S. Scott, Canadian Missionaries, Indigenous Peoples: Representing Religion at Home and Abroad. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), 262-278.

Re:Locations Journal, Vol. 2, 2019

Figure 1. Wakahuia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Wood, Shell, c. late 19th century, Royal Ontario Museum

Rev. Annand was particularly active in Vanuatu, and some of the objects within the ROM’s Annand collection can be attributed specifically to the Erromango.3 Currently on display from this collection of Vanuatuan material culture is an ornamental girdle (Fig. 2), which may be the same artifact that was sent to David Boyle with a note from Annand indicating the circumstances of its purchase on Santo island:

Here we noticed a peculiar style of dress not seen elsewhere in the group. It consists of a block of wood worn across the upper part of the hips, with a lot of fancy strings with beads stretched across the front and fastened to the ends of the block. I secured one for the Ethnological Museum in Toronto.4

3 Barbara Lawson, “Collecting Cultures: Canadian Missionaries, Pacific Islanders, and Museums” in eds. Alyyn and Scott, Canadian Missionaries, Indigenous Peoples, 238. 4 Presbyterian Record (December 1896) quoted in Smith, “'Curios' from a Strange Land”, 272.

Figure 2. Ni-Vanuatu, Wood, cord, fibre, glass beads, Melanesia, Espiritu Santo island, Sanma, Vanuatu, c. 1897, Length 73.7 cm, Royal Ontario Museum, NS15055

The means by which objects such as this were secured through barter and trade are described in Annand’s journals. In this case, the man who was clothed by the girdle at the time was encouraged to part with it for “twenty sticks of tobacco.”5 Anand sent items, which he labelled ‘curios’, back to Toronto and Halifax for display, both to raise funds that would support his missionary endeavours and, when accompanied by letters, to justify the ‘civilizing’ missionary efforts in the Pacific.6 Nicholas Thomas has likewise argued that texts by missionaries provided a “narrative of conversion” which promoted a contrast between a previously uncivilized state and a “subsequently elevated and purified Christian state”.7

5 ‘War Clubs and Axes: The New Hebridean Islanders’ Terrible Weapons,’ in Toronto Mail & Empire (4 October 1897) quoted in Smith, “'Curios' from a Strange Land”, 274. 6 Smith, “Curios' from a Strange Land”, 271. 7 Nicholas Thomas, Colonialism’s Culture: Anthropology, Travel and Government, (Oxford: Polity Press, 1994), 126.

Re:Locations Journal, Vol. 2, 2019

A key figure in the Royal Ontario Museum’s collection is The Reverend William Ellis of the London Missionary Society, who was in Polynesia for eight years and spent much time in Tahiti. An article describing Ellis’ collection of Malagasy textiles, donated by his descendants to the ROM, does little to situate the history of this collection within the context of the missionary project.8 Throughout his stay in the Pacific, Ellis was engaged in ethnographic research, placing much emphasis on material culture. His writing on the Pacific is cited by Ron Edmond as influential to Captain James Cook and Captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville’s narratives of Tahiti, which launched European conventions of the ‘primitive’ and utopian nature of the ‘South Seas’ into the public imagination.9 Missionary work was inextricably intertwined with the processes of colonization, and much of the material culture collected by Annand and Ellis became decontextualized ‘curios’ that were seen as the products of ‘primitive’ peoples who would be converted and inevitably disappear.

The mode of display for the Asia-Pacific collection does little to problematize colonial ideology. The objects of the collection are displayed in a traditional museum glass case setting, with each larger case divided into distinct island territories. Often the demarcation between cultures is presented through a series of photographs and ethnographic drawings on the back wall which frame the objects of the collection. (Fig. 3) While these images clearly aim to contextualize the objects on display, their positioning within the exhibit does little to historically situate the images as ethnographic artifacts. The photographs are presented as supporting evidence distinct from the people taking the images, when indeed many reinforce the prevailing colonial conceptions of Asia and the Pacific.

8 “In Living Colour: the ROM’s unique collection of textiles from Madagascar”, Royal Ontario Museum, https://www.rom.on.ca/en/collections-research/research-community-projects/world-culture/in-living- colour-the-roms-unique. (Accessed October 17, 2019) 9 Rod Edmond, Representing the South Pacific: Colonial discourse from Cook to Gauguin, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 149.

Figure 3. Royal Ontario Museum, Africa, Americas, and Asia-Pacific Collection

The impact of the colonial legacy in Asia and Oceania is touched upon briefly in the collection’s museum didactics, which aim to provide a thematic overview of the Oceanic collection. The impact of the colonial period in the Pacific is mentioned on a panel describing a broad Polynesian cosmology, yet this reinforces the notion that colonization was experienced in a similar way across the Pacific. This could be again extended to reflect local histories, as is done in the description of New Zealand and its interaction with the crown and Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi, allowing a more detailed narrative of cultural resilience to be explored.

Re:Locations Journal, Vol. 2, 2019

The Southeast Asia Collection

The Southeast Asia collection within the Asia-Pacific display provides enormous potential for discussing and problematizing the colonial legacy. This exhibition is largely comprised of late nineteenth and early twentieth century objects that originate in the Philippines. The lack of artifacts from other regions reduces the representation of the entirety of Southeast Asia to Filipino material culture. Didactics briefly mention that the majority of objects in the Southeast Asia collection were originally exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis world’s fair before becoming part of the ROM’s founding collection in 1910, but do not take the opportunity to provide further context that engages with this problematic legacy.

The 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair was established to commemorate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, a land deal with the French that nearly doubled the size of the United States of America. The land transaction strengthened the American economy, and established America as a key international player in the nineteenth century alongside the British and French empires. At this fair the latest achievements of America in manufacturing, industry, the arts, and the military were promoted over seven months to around twenty million attendees.10 Like many World’s Fairs, the St. Louis exposition was designed through a Western worldview that placed America at the height of evolutionary achievement and those cultures perceived to be more ‘primitive’ on the periphery of civilization. Timothy Mitchell has extensively theorized how the spatial arrangement and visual representation of colonial subjects at World’s Fairs played a role in the construction of otherness and the subsequent production of national identity.11 The representation of America’s colonial subjects was a key feature of the St. Louis World’s Fair, as the 1904 exhibition was also a celebration of America’s acquisition of the Philippines.

10 Beverly Grindstaff, “Creating Identity: Exhibiting the Philippines at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition”, National Identities 1, no.3 (1999): 245. 11 Timothy Mitchell, “Orientalism and The Exhibitionary Order” in ed. Nicholas Dirks, Colonialism and Culture (Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1992): 290.

Figure 4. Tipay (tray) with US Customs sticker, Bamboo, Sorsogon, Luzon, Philippines, c. 1904, 4 x 20.4 cm, 910.57.461, Gift of the University of Toronto

To showcase America’s newest colony, the Philippines exhibition was one of the largest spectacles at the World’s Fair. On display were re-enactments of battles from the Spanish-American War of 1898, where the United States had defeated Spain for control of Cuba and the Philippines. The exhibition also featured the indigenous Igorot peoples of the northern Luzon region in human zoos, a mode of display made popular in the nineteenth century that transformed cultural otherness into a spectacle. The display included a “recreation” of an Igorot village, populated by up to one thousand people from the Philippines.12 Within these displays people were actively represented as exotic and primitive, as their sacred performances became a viewing commodity.

12 Mitchell, “Orientalism and The Exhibitionary Order,” 246.

Re:Locations Journal, Vol. 2, 2019

The fair included displays based on anthropological theories and ethnographic studies that would reinforce the view of Filipino people as inferior based on “scientific” evidence.13 Within the St. Louis World’s Fair, representations of the world and of nations had an order imposed on them to promote a particular national narrative. The display of the Philippine’s featured three cultural sections depicting the ethnological state of the islands, the civilizing force of the Spanish, and lastly emphasizing the necessity of the United States’ colonization of the Filipino people who were deemed incapable of national self-determination.14

In a 2012 article entitled Meet Me in Toronto: The Re-exhibition of Artifacts from the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition at the Royal Ontario Museum, Bonnie McElhinny traces the history of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and its relationship to the display of colonial artifacts at the Royal Ontario Museum in depth.15 McElhinny describes in detail the lack of colonial history or ethnography found within the curatorial methodology of the exhibit. McElhinny’s thoughtful consideration of museum practices and suggestions for new modes of display supports the general critique that is likewise outlined in this article. Despite institutional constraints that may make the proposed larger scale alterations unfeasible, there are smaller interventions that would attend to the issues outlined.

Without fully addressing the problematic nature of the origins of the collection in didactics, the display neglects an opportunity to engage visitors with issues of colonial collection. The exhibition of the objects and accompanying didactics could do more to problematize the way that North America depicted Filipino culture in the early twentieth century as traditional and static.

The current organization of objects along functional lines also implies a shared and adapted tradition, which may not consider specific local histories. The majority of items are from Luzon and Visayas (northern and mid-Philippines) with a few items from Mindanao (southern Philippines). That these items are

13 Jenna Kuttruff and Carl Kuttruff, "American Imperialism at the 1904 World’s Fair: A Case Study of Philippine Dress", International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) Annual Conference Proceedings 94, (2013): 8. 14 Ibid. 15 Bonnie McElhinny, “Meet Me in Toronto: The Re-exhibition of Artifacts from the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition at the Royal Ontario Museum” in eds. Roland Sintos Coloma, Bonnie McElhinny, Ethel Tungohan, John Paul C. Catungal, and Lisa M. Davidson, Filipinos in Canada: Disturbing Invisibility. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012), 223-239.

sorted by functional categories (i.e. hats, baskets, fishing tools etc.), also makes it difficult to distinguish which items are from which region of the Philippines, further homogenizing Southeast Asian culture.

Figure 5. Philippine’s Display, Royal Ontario Museum

It is the singular nature of the narrative presented in the Asia-Pacific section of the exhibition that is the subject of this brief critique. The relationship between Asia, the Pacific, and the categories which the ROM employs for display could be further clarified, as the geographic zone of the “Asia-Pacific” is not well-defined within the current layout. The main exhibition didactic

Re:Locations Journal, Vol. 2, 2019 could reflect current museum display methodologies if it were to emphasize the diverse range of local histories present in Asia and the Pacific. For example, rather than presenting the history of Pacific migration through a singular grand narrative as the exhibition does currently, images and timelines of navigation and migration could be used to contextualise the temporal and spatial expanse of this journey. The concept of ocean migration has been employed elsewhere as a connecting thread, where the expansive Pacific Ocean/Moana Oceania is used to both unite the history of the region and to demonstrate the distinction between islands and cultures. Reconsideration or contextualisation of the use of the terms ‘Asia-Pacific,’ ‘Pacific,’ and ‘Oceania,’ in relation to established Area Studies scholarship by authors such as Epeli Hau’ofa, would do well to problematize some of the issues discussed.16 It also remains necessary to problematize current terminology found in didactic descriptions, such as “jungle villages”, to challenge those narratives of primitivism that remain embedded in Western museum displays. Combining the artifacts of the Asia-Pacific collection with an updated narrative inclusive of contemporary history would also better reflect the complex history of local culture and artistic practice.

Some of the most well displayed and contextualized objects within this collection are the tapa cloth acquired from Samoa and Tahiti. (Fig. 6) A more dynamic display of textiles from across the Pacific that highlights the range of ongoing artistic production would illustrate these practices as integral to real and living cultural history. The mention of other Southeast Asian countries is present in a didactic in the Madagascar exhibition, which does identify that many patterns and designs from this display are the result of encounters with Southeast Asian textiles and artifacts. The current organization of exhibitions according to Western geography limits the opportunity to explore these histories and relationships between Africa and Southeast Asia. An exhibition of work that both demonstrates cross-cultural transmission and pays attention to the local complexities of practices throughout the African, American, and Asia-Pacific collections would contribute to breaking down the geographic boundaries and western narratives that are currently imposed upon them.

16Epeli Hau’ofa, “Our Sea of Islands,” The Contemporary Pacific, Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 1994, 147–161. First published in A New Oceania: Rediscovering Our Sea of Islands, edited by Vijay Naidu, Eric Waddell, and Epeli Hau‘ofa. Suva: School of Social and Economic Development, The University of the South Pacific, 1993.

There are many larger institutional issues that are demonstrated by the Africa, Americas, and Asia-Pacific Collection, including the way in which current exhibition categorizations homogenize indigenous material culture. It is the continued practice of many major North American museums to group the indigenous material culture of these geographic regions, and the history of this practice is rooted in nineteenth century ethnography and colonial collection. This brief assessment of the collection merely seeks to highlight issues in the narratives portrayed through the current display. Ultimately, consultations with Indigenous communities that recognize their authority on these objects and allow for a consideration of non-western methodologies of display would be a critical step forward for the future exhibition of these objects. Questions remain regarding the categorizations employed in the display of material culture, and the role institutions play in holding these collections.

Figure 6. Tapa, Bark, plant dyes, Tahiti, c. 1820, 104 × 179.5 cm, 901.1.2, bought from the New Zealand display at the Canadian National Exposition in 1926. Reverend William Ellis Collection, Royal Ontario Museum.

Re:Locations Journal, Vol. 2, 2019

The biography of many of these taonga remains to be written from an Indigenous perspective. The importance of this curatorial perspective is considered extensively by Ngarino Ellis in her exploration of Māori Art History: “These are ancestral treasures passed down from the ancestors through the generations. They are not simply materials and forms.”17 Her article on biography as a method highlights how this must be taken into consideration, not only in the display of material culture, but in the production of knowledge through research and scholarship. Ellis argues powerfully for the necessity of allowing Indigenous scholars to act as authorities on Indigenous art and material culture. A careful reconfiguration of the Royal Ontario Museum’s ‘Asia-Pacific’ display, one that takes into account current ethical considerations of the display of indigenous material and visual culture, remains vital.

17 Ngarino Ellis writes that “Taonga tuku iho anchor my practice as a Māori art historian.” She cites Māori scholar Hirini Moko’s Mead description of the way in which taonga are imbued with “ihi (power), wehi (fear), and wana (authority).” Hirini Moko Mead quoted in Ngarino Ellis, “TE AO HURIHURI O NGA TAONGA TUKU IHO: THE EVOLVING WORLDS OF OUR ANCESTRAL TREASURES,” Biography 39, (2016): 443. See also: Hirini Moko Mead, Māori Art on the World Scene: Essays on Maori Art. (Wellington: Ahua Design and Illustration Ltd.; Matau Associates, 1997).

References

Edmond, Rod. Representing the South Pacific: Colonial discourse from Cook to Gauguin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Ellis, Ngarino. “Te Ao Hurihuri O Nga Taonga Tuku Iho: The Evolving Worlds of Our Ancestral Treasures.” Biography, 39, (2016): 438-460,505.

Grindstaff, Beverly K. “Creating Identity: Exhibiting the Philippines at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition”, National Identities 1 , no.3 (1999): 245-263

Hau’ofa, Epeli. “Our Sea of Islands.” The Contemporary Pacific, Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 1994, 147–161.

Kuttruff, Jenna Tedrick and Kuttruff, Carl. "American Imperialism at the 1904 World’s Fair: A Case Study of Philippine Dress". In International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) Annual Conference Proceedings no.70, 2013.

Thomas, Nicholas. Colonialism’s Culture: Anthropology, Travel and Government. Oxford: Polity Press. 1994.

Lawson, Barbara. “Collecting Cultures: Canadian Missionaries, Pacific Islanders, and Museums” In Canadian Missionaries, Indigenous Peoples: Representing Religion at Home and Abroad, edited by Alvyn Austin and Jamie S. Scott, 235-261. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.

McElhinny, Bonnie. “Meet Me in Toronto: The Re-exhibition of Artifacts from the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition at the Royal Ontario Museum” In Filipinos in Canada: Disturbing Invisibility edited by Roland Sintos Coloma, Bonnie McElhinny, Ethel Tungohan, John Paul C. Catungal, and Lisa M. Davidson, 223-239.Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012.

Mitchell, Timothy. “Orientalism and The Exhibitionary Order”. In Colonialism and Culture edited by Nicholas Dirks, 289-317. Michigan: University of

Re:Locations Journal, Vol. 2, 2019

Michigan Press, 1992.

Smith, Arthur. “'Curios' from a Strange Land: The Oceania Collections of the Reverend Joseph Annand” In Canadian Missionaries, Indigenous Peoples: Representing Religion at Home and Abroad, edited by Alvyn Austin and Jamie S. Scott, 262-278. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.

This essay was produced through a collaborative research program run by Re:Locations Journal of the Asia Pacific World and Synergy: The Journal of Contemporary Asian Studies.

Hosted by the Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto.