Pacific Art IN DETAIL Jenny Newell © 2011 The Trustees of the British Museum

Jenny Newell has asserted the right to be identified as the author of this work Contents First published in 2011 by The British Museum Press A division of The British Museum Company Ltd 38 Russell Square, London WC1B 3QQ www.britishmuseum.org Preface 000 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library 1 What Is Pacific Art? 000

ISBN 2 Art of the Moment 000 Photography by the British Museum Department of Photography and Imaging 3 Sea of Islands 000

Map by Mark Gunning (www.gunningdesign.com) 4 Gods and Spirits 000

Designed and typeset in Minion and Helvetica by Printed in 5 Living with Ancestors 000

The papers used in this book are natural, renewable and recyclable 6 Art of Power 000 products and the manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. 7 Art of Dance 000

8 Art of War 000

9 Art of Change 000

10 Further Information 000 Sources 000

Further reading 000 Collections of Pacific art 000 Glossary 000 British Museum registration numbers 000 Index 000

4 5 Preface

In recent decades Pacific Islanders have Kalissa Alexeyeff, Joshua Bell, Mike Gunn, been increasingly engaged with museum Crispin Howarth, Sean Mallon, Olympia E. Preface objects, historic photographic collections, and Morei, Paul Tapsell, Michel Tuffery, etc. [AQ: archives as documents of the art forms and more names to come?] techniques of their ancestors. This is part of The National Museum of Australia of the Pacific are magnificently more widely accessible through publications a broader process within the post-colonial generously supported the writing of this diverse. This book provides a detailed view and online resources. Pacific of rediscovering traditional methods book during my fellowship at the Centre into some of this diversity. It is presented like More can be discovered about the objects and reinvigorating early art practices. As the for Historical Research. Special thanks go a walk through an exhibition, showcasing of art in this book through the British and scholar Rosanna Raymond has said, to Peter Stanley, Director of the Centre, for treasures from the extraordinary Museum’s Collection Database on the museums could become ‘arenas for cultural his ever-enthusiastic support and comments collection at the British Museum – all Museum’s website. This database (a work-in- exchange, going outside the boundary of the on the manuscript. I am also grateful to organized into themes, with explanatory labels progress, regularly updated) can be searched space into everyday life’. Anne Faris, Dawn Hollins, Kate Goode and and a curator beside you pointing out aspects using a relevant search term or the object’s Rachel Eggleton. Fellow Pacific researcher, of each artefact’s significance. registration number. These numbers are Kylie Moloney, gave superb help and advice. The Oceania collection at the British listed at the back of the book. Here you will acknowledgements I thank the British Museum Press, particularly Deep thanks to my husband, Mark Gunning, Museum is one of the world’s most significant also find a guide to further reading, a list of Naomi Waters and Axelle Russo, for bringing for his invaluable and comprehensive help collections from the Pacific, encompassing references for the sources quoted in the text, the book together so skilfully – as well as Nina (from child care to design advice and map around 37,000 items and stretching from more information about the British Museum’s Shandloff, original editor of the series, and production), and to our sons, Ben and Tom, 8,000-year-old archaeological finds to collection, and a glossary. More information Rosemary Bradley, Director of Publishing. for their patience. I dedicate the book to them. contemporary and sculpture. In on Oceanic cultures and the Museum’s Heartfelt thanks to Mike Row of the British the Oceania department of the Museum’s collection can be found at the Centre for Museum’s Photographic and Imaging storehouse are works in wood, stone, bone, Anthropology at the British Museum’s north Department for his talent in making these textiles, ceramics, feathers, dog fur, shell, entrance. often very challenging objects look their best. coconut shell, plastic, metal and more. These This book is for everyone interested in I am grateful to my former colleagues in the works were made and collected across the finding out more about the arts of the Pacific, Museum’s Oceanic section for all their insights breadth of Oceania, a comprising the not just about the examples in the British and advice on the object selections and the Pacific Islands, including Aotearoa (New Museum. The specific objects presented here pleasure of working together over many years: Zealand) and Australia and the Torres Strait. are representative of the types either still being Lissant Bolton, Jill Hasell, Natasha McKinney, Some of the collection is on display in the made by Pacific Islanders or found in historic Elizabeth Bonshek, Julie Adams and Ben Burt. Museum itself, and researchers, and collections in private and public institutions I appreciate the advice of a wide range of members of source communities visit the around the world. A list of institutions with Pacific curators, artists, scholars and others: artefacts in the storeroom. They are also made major Pacific collections is included at the end.

6 7 What is Pacific Art?

1 from sculptural installations combining found things that Pacific Islanders make. The The arts of the Pacific Ocean’s many cultures objects and photography to performance chapters in this book reflect these important What is Pacific Art? are dazzling in their richness. Some of these pieces for a digital environment. streams within Pacific Island life. arts are easily recognized: from the majestic This book presents on an intimate scale a Art has generally been defined by Pacific ‘We reveal the richness and beauty of our cultures by coming together stone ancestor figures of Rapa Nui (Easter view into the creativity of this dynamic region: Islanders over time as something that is and sharing them.’ Mary Ama, texile and fibre artist, Island), to the spectacular feather headdresses its people, places and productions. carried out with skill – something well made Cook Islands and Aotearoa (New Zealand), 2001 of Papua New Guinea. Closer and more The Pacific is the world’s most culturally or well performed. One of the skills valued detailed examination, allows us deeper diverse region. The Pacific Ocean covers has been ‘indirectness’, the ability to conceal understanding of these arts. one-third of the globe and contains more effectively the meanings of things in layers, The people of the Pacific Ocean have always than 25,000 islands. Depending on where which are sometimes gradually, but not created powerful things. Carvings, textiles one draws the boundaries, the number of always, revealed. Gender has always been a key and architecture, as well as dance, oratory and inhabited islands can be said to be about line of division in Pacific cultures. Historically, other performing arts, are all visually potent 10,000. Each island group has its distinctive most activities were assigned to either men and have often been about managing the arts, as well as distinctive topographies, or women: men were carvers, tattooists and flow of power through people and the land. cosmologies, societies, polities and economies. canoe builders. Women were the makers of Many of these works have acted to provide a Nevertheless, within this diversity, the barkcloth (tapa), potters, plaiters of mats and connection to gods, spirits and ancestors – and Pacific is still a region bound together by its canoe sails. While many of these divisions in attempt to manage their power. The visual connecting ocean and connected histories, art practice have dissolved, they do continue effect of an object – its stunning intricacy, its with ongoing cultural links between the in some Pacific cultures. beautifully formed simplicity or its aggressive islands. While there are many smaller regional potency – is central to the object’s power. identities, most Islanders of the Pacific Ocean As you will see in these pages, Pacific recognize a degree of shared heritage and Painted pottery bowl. Islander artists today often intersect their work shared identity. Wosera, East Sepik with traditional forms. Some are inspired by There are approaches to life that can be province, Papua the intricately carved canoes and meeting seen embodied in the arts across the great New Guinea. houses, the spectacular ceremonial masks breadth of the Pacific. There are common Clay. H. 24cm. and dance costumes, kites, feather cloaks, and approaches to the world that have a long weapons of earlier eras, and either re-create or history, but still retain validity: the deep- work from a basis of these forms. Many artists running, potent connections to land, to sea of the contemporary Pacific are also creating and to family, ancestors and sacred beings. new art forms that comment on today’s world, These connections find expression in the

8 9 Pacific Art in Detail What is Pacific Art?

Pacific-wide, artists have historically artists to adapt and explore change while Pacific arts The British Museum’s relationship with works are thoroughly documented – and well worked with the stuff of sacredness. The maintaining a hold on traditions. Islanders at the British Oceania began when a staff member, Daniel placed to enhance our understanding of the things they made channelled the flow of a have a long history of innovations inspired Museum Solander, accompanied Captain Cook on his complexities of modern life in the Pacific. sacred power – mana. This power flows from by new things and new ideas from beyond first voyage to the Pacific Ocean. The material the most sacred of founding gods or ancestors their borders. When Europeans and Islanders from these voyages was displayed in the down through descendants, and must be started encountering each other in a sustained Museum’s South Seas Room from about 1778. managed carefully. A strong, successful leader way, they were often captivated by each It proved to be one of most popular rooms in or a great war canoe has substantial mana; other’s material creations. Their exchanges – the Museum. contact with both of these must be managed giving gifts, trading, taking – were mutually Thereafter Oceanic material was shown carefully, to avoid damage. Things and enthusiastic. in ethnographic galleries. The mourners’ activities that are sacred and restricted are In Europe, insights into new societies, costume from Tahiti (p. 000) was on display tapu (a word that, brought back to England by augmented by the evidence in objects brought in the Museum from the end of the 1700s explorer and navigator Captain James Cook, back by voyagers, stimulated debates about for well over 100 years. In recent decades the has become ‘taboo’). Carving and tattooing, the nature of human society. There was a Museum has presented exhibitions such as in many parts of the Pacific, have traditionally keen audience for the material culture of the Māori (1998), Power and Taboo: Sacred Objects been considered tapu activities. Pacific in museums, private collections and from the Pacific (2006–07), and the 2009 On many of the Pacific’s islands, the the engraved illustrations in travel accounts, show Dazzling the Enemy: Shields from the continuity of cultural traditions was eroded inspiring productions, garden Pacific. Staff at the Museum collaborate with or broken during the 1800s and early 1900s design and a keen market for publications. Pacific communities on joint projects and through the actions of missionaries, traders Enthusiasm waned later in the 1800s, from time to time are able to liaise with an and colonial authorities. Europeans had particularly as the romantic appeal of Pacific artist to acquire an artwork. Unlike many of started travelling through the Pacific from Island cultures was seen to have dimmed, the historic collections, these contemporary the 1500s, and visiting, trading and settling changed by the introductions from the in the Pacific in significant numbers from the Europeans’ own societies: the Church, colonial Kaipel Ka, signwriter, with the Wahgi warrior’s ‘South Pacific Lager’ 1770s. After a few decades European nations rule and manufactured goods. France, Britain, shield he painted. The shield was purchased by the British Museum in began forcibly taking land. Bans on traditional Spain, Germany, the United States, Japan and 1990 (Oc1990,09.4). Photograph: © Michael O’Hanlon. Many global influences can be seen across the Pacific Islands – in Papua practices and the arrival of new materials and Australia all established colonies in the region. New Guinea the game of rugby has encouraged clan warriors to formulate techniques had a profound impact. Tourism to the region from the late 1800s their battles as two opposing sides, each with distinctive, unifying symbols. A mainstay of creative practice in the recast the Pacific as a leisure paradise. This has During a 1989 war, Kaipel Ka (a signwriter of the Highlands) painted shields Pacific, however, has been the ability of been a persistent vision. for his mother’s clan. He included the logo for South Pacific Lager, a reference to the drunken accident that sparked the war.

10 11 Pacific Art in Detail

While the British Museum holds a rich lineage to those of Pacific peoples. The book Australian collection, this book focuses on includes two works from the Torres Strait the Pacific, rather than the broader reach of Islands because, although these islands are s Oceania. Arts of indigenous Australia are not politically part of Australia, they are culturally n d l a I s included here. They trace a separate cultural more aligned to Melanesia. A l e u t i a n

USA

Hawaiian Islands

Is.Revilla Gigedo M Marshall Is. I C R P O N O Clipperton I. E Caroline Is. S L I in L A e M E Y L A N Gilbert Is. Is E S la I n N A d Kiritimati s New Guinea Kiribati New Ireland Nauru E Galapagos Is. Phoenix Is. S

Solomon Is. I Tuvalu Tokelau Marquesas Is. Torres Strait A Wallis & Western

Futuna Vanuatu American French Fiji Samoa Tonga Cook Is. Tahiti Tuamotu Is. Society Islands New Caledonia Tubuai Is. Gambier Is. Pitcairn Sala y Gómez Australia Norfolk I. Rapa Nui San Félix (Easter I.)

Juan Fernández Is. Caption copy to come. Victor Jupurrula Ross, Yarla Jukurrpa (‘Bush New Zealand Potato Dreaming’). Yuendemu, Western Desert, Northern Chatham Is. Paci c Islands Territory, Australia, 1980s.

Acrylic on canvas. L. 159 cm. 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 Miles

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 Km 12 Pacific Art in Detail What is Pacific Art?

What are Since the 1830s the Pacific Ocean has been approaches to arts. Polynesia covers much of geographic divisions – eastern, western and Polynesia, divided up within European discussions into the eastern Pacific, forming a triangle from northwestern – are good alternatives and the Melanesia three cultural-geographical . These are Rapa Nui (Easter Island), up to Hawaii and divisions that I primarily use in this book. and Polynesia (‘many islands’), Melanesia (‘black down to Aotearoa (New Zealand) (see the I hope that you enjoy this journey into the islands’) and Micronesia (‘small islands’). glossary for a fuller listing of the islands). arts of the Pacific Ocean. Micronesia? Each developed from the main branches of Melanesia lies in the western Pacific, including migration across the Pacific from Southeast the major island groups of Papua New Guinea, Asia and Papua. Within these regions societies the , Vanuatu and New tend to share an ancient language base. They Caledonia. also share characteristics of social, ritual and Micronesia is made up of more than 2,000 economic life, structures of government, and islands and atolls in the northwest Pacific, including the archipelagos of the Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands, Northern Marianas and Palau. Pacific Islanders often use these terms, but as with any classification – especially one devised by outsiders – Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia are useful for some purposes, but are also politically problematic and often fail to reflect realities on the ground. There is a growing preference for the term ‘Oceania’ to speak of the entire Pacific Ocean, to highlight the unified strength of the region, and to find more meaningful classifications. Simple

Mask of a deified ancestor. Chief’s shell-money (bakiha) pendant. Mortlock Island, Caroline Islands New Georgia or Isobel, Solomon Islands (Micronesia). (Melanesia), before 1914. Breadfruit wood, coir. H. 67 cm. This mask was danced in ceremonies to Turtle shell, dolphin’s teeth, tridacna shell, encourage good breadfruit harvests. glass beads, fibre. Diam. 21cm.

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