The Fijian collections at
MAA are significant, not only for the singularity and quality of the objects,
but in the fact that they include the founding collections of the museum made between
1874 and 1877 by Baron Anatole von
Hügel and the first British Governor of Fiji, Sir Arthur Hamilton-Gordon.
The exhibition is held in
the Li Ka Shing Gallery on the ground floor of MAA. Many people of Fijian
descent attended the opening of the exhibition and this participation
demonstrated the collaborative aims of the exhibition and the contemporary
relationship between Cambridge and Fiji.
The pillars in the gallery had been decorated with Fijian barkcloth (masi) and bound with coir cord (magimagi), a traditional process known
as lalawa used in Fijian architecture
which was carried out by invited members of the Fijian community in the UK. Lalawa’s purpose is not solely decorative
as it embodies a spiritual dimension and transformed the physical space of the
museum into a spiritual place which was a fitting setting to display the high-status
objects in the exhibition and one which created a material and physical
dialogue between Fiji and Cambridge.
The title of the
exhibition is clearly visible and on a shelf underneath is a model of a Fijian
double-hulled canoe (drua). Adjacent
to this is an introductory text panel which explained the aim of the exhibition,
which was to explore the power of Fijian objects in the past and the present,
and this framed the narrative of the exhibition. The text emphasises that the
objects were mediators in relationships between powerful chieftainships as well as between Fijian chiefs,
British governors and others, highlighting their power. A map of the Western
Pacific islands allows visitors to locate the islands of Fiji and its
geographical proximity to the islands of Tonga and Samoa with which Fiji had
long-established relations.
The exhibition is designed
chronologically although this is occasionally interrupted with contemporary
objects, and the flow of the exhibition is in an anti-clockwise direction. The
objects are displayed in a white-walled gallery and spot-lit against a darker
background to show their aesthetic and artistic qualities which serves to
redefine and reappraise them from ethnographic to art object without losing the
complexity of their history and context.
A text panel introduces
Fiji as a ‘Sea of Islands’ and explains the importance of travel, the skills
involved in boatbuilding, networks of exchange, and the interconnectedness of
islands in Western Polynesia which allowed the exchange of knowledge, objects,
traditions and skills. Many of the objects were made from shell and whale
ivory, a very valuable and high status material in Fiji. The displays include artefacts
which range from very prestigious breast ornaments demonstrating high levels of
craftsmanship, to whale ivory sculptures, to fish-hooks, wooden headrests and
fishing baskets, exemplifying everyday functional objects. Whale teeth
presentation objects (tabua), one of the most valuable objects in
Fijian life in the past as well as in the present, reappear throughout the
exhibition as a reflection of their importance to Fijians, as presentation gifts
to the British, and for European collectors such as von Hügel.
There are some fine
examples of barkcloth (masi) along
with the tools used in its production. The turtle is represented through a
range of objects from carved wooden yaqona
bowls, pottery and whale ivory ornaments, foregrounding its value in Fijian
life. A good range of chiefly clubs are exhibited, not only as efficient
weapons, but also as status symbols and as vehicles which connected warriors to
ancestor spirits. Items of personal adornment include whale ivory ear
ornaments, and several whale ivory necklaces including a very striking necklace
which featured eighteen fish pendants carved in sperm whale ivory which,
according to the exhibition catalogue, is without equivalent in museum
collections from Fiji. It was particularly interesting to see a pendant (bulikula) made with a rare golden cowrie
shell which would have only been worn by a priest or chief.
An area is dedicated to
objects presented at a solevu, the
ceremonial gathering of large groups of people for presentations, a very
important occasion in Fijian life, then and now. An interesting aspect of this is the
inclusion of contemporary objects alongside historical ones and coloured
photographs of recent solevu
demonstrating the cultural continuity of this Fijian practice. The religious aspects
of Fijian life are represented by a section on priests and chiefs and objects
include model spirit houses, carved ancestor figures that were kept in spirit
houses, and a shell trumpet for communicating with the Gods.
Missionaries had already
had an impact on Fijian life and culture by the time von Hügel and Sir Hamilton-Gordon
arrived. The exhibition is refreshingly open and transparent about this Western
impact. For example, an exhibit of a wonderful Fijian grass skirt (liku) has a label which acknowledges
that the conversion of Fijians to Christianity and the encouragement from
missionaries to adopt European clothing, led to the decline and disappearance
of the liku as clothing.
A section on ‘Chiefs and
Governors’ introduces the arrival of the British in 1874 and the subsequent
‘Relationships’ that developed. An area on ‘Collectors’ is mainly dedicated to
von Hügel who is represented by his painted portrait along with some of his
significant objects, which was unsurprising given that it was his collection
that formed the museum. It was good to see the inclusion of the traveller and
artist Constance Gordon Cumming who was very much a part of the Government
House entourage and who also had the ‘collecting bug’.
The final section ‘New
Discoveries’ outlines the continuing relationship between Fiji and Cambridge such
as collaborative research for teaching and developing relations with a variety
of communities and audiences and emphasised that the historical objects in the
collections still have significant cultural value in Fiji today. I would have
welcomed more objects in this section to make an impact and to create the
opportunity to expand on the research and work being undertaken in Cambridge. I
also questioned the use of the term ‘Discoveries’ which reminded me of early European ‘voyages of discovery’ and felt
that an alternative term pointing to a collaborative future may be more
appropriate.
Certain types of objects
are not just grouped together but reappear in the different themes throughout
the exhibition such as different examples of tabua, yaqona dishes and masi. This may be repetitive, but it
actually served to show that some objects were an important part of different
aspects of Fijian life, over time, as well as their on-going use today, and
justified the curatorial decision to include them throughout the exhibition.
The exhibition
demonstrates that the objects were acquired in many ways: through democratic
relations, mutual respect and friendship; it also highlights the
multi-dimensional and nuanced aspects of colonial collecting. As I walked
around the exhibition I kept wondering about the objects that had been
exchanged and presented by the British that had the equivalent value and
whether there are any of these in the Fiji Museum in Suva? I would also have
welcomed more quotations or views from a Fijian perspective. The exhibition
catalogue acknowledges that it attempts to develop an analytical symmetry
between the British and Fijians but admits that the account is inevitably
one-sided and that all the quotes and descriptions originate from European
sources, including those attributed to Fijians.
All labels are written in
English with the Fijian translation in brackets, thus respecting the Fijian
language, and it is admirable that some labels acknowledge the problematic
nature of the impact of Europeans on Fijian culture as well as the cultural
continuity in contemporary Fiji today.
There is a good range of
visual media which are displayed as objects in themselves and these include a
mixture of old historical black and white photographs as well as more
contemporary coloured ones of Fijian life today. Some photographs show the processes by which objects were made which
I thought helped to reclaim a historical narrative for the Fijian makers of the
objects who, with further research, may one day be identified.
The exhibition is comprehensive
in scope and very well presented. What makes
this intelligent exhibition succeed is not just the exquisite objects on
display, but the way in which the exhibition is designed to give space to each
complex aspect of Fijian life in pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial
times and provides a rare and wonderful opportunity to see some of the
most valuable and precious objects of Fijian art.
The exhibition reveals the
historical and contemporary relational aspects of MAA: British collectors and
governors, Fijian chiefs, Fijian craftspeople and makers, the MAA curators and draws
attention to their interconnectedness through material culture and the objects
on display. For the British the objects reflect the institutional, political,
social and cultural histories as well as the domestic life at Government House.
The exhibition can be interpreted as an example of how material culture is
embedded in social relationships and the mutual constitutiveness of objects and
people.
Fijians were represented
in the exhibition through the material objects themselves which revealed their
makers’ creativity and innovative use of materials, their skill, craftsmanship
and technologies of making, their aesthetic sensibility, and their adaptation
in changing circumstances, politically and aesthetically. The objects reveal
the Fijian system of thinking, their social system of chieftainship and their
religious and ontological way of being in the world through the making of
objects and the cultural system of value attributed to them at the time.
All relationships involve
issues of power. However, visualizing an intangible concept such as power is
difficult as it is something that is usually invisible. The chiefly
presentation objects in the exhibition were not intended to be transferred as
permanent possessions at the time, but were intended as a means to promote on-going
relationships. The objects in the exhibition represent a dialogue between two
countries and two cultures and between the past and the present, but, as
demonstrated in the exhibition, they also retain their power for the future.
Catherine Cummings,
University of Exeter
