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Course: Art of Oceania > Unit 1
Lesson 4: Polynesia- Polynesia, an introduction
- Paikea at the American Museum of Natural History
- Moai, sacred ancestor figures of Rapa Nui
- Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Moai
- Voyage to the moai of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
- Presentation of Fijian mats and tapa cloths to Queen Elizabeth II
- Rurutu figure known as A’a
- A welcome to a Maori meeting house
- Maori meeting house
- Hawaiian featherworks
- Feather cape
- Queen Liliʻuokalani’s accession photograph
- Necklace (Lei Niho Palaoa), Hawai'i
- Temple figure of war god Kūkaʻilimoku
- Fly Whisk (Tahiri), Austral Islands
- Michel Tuffery, Pisupo Lua Afe
- Gottfried Lindauer, Tamati Waka Nene
- Hiapo (tapa)
- Bark cloth from Wallis and Futuna
- Staff-god
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Necklace (Lei Niho Palaoa), Hawai'i
Necklace (Lei Niho Palaoa), Hawai’i, early to mid-19th century, ivory, human hair, fiber, 4 1/4 x 16 in. / 10.8 x 40.6 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979.206.1623). Speakers: Dr. Maia Nuku, Evelyn A. J. Hall and John A. Friede Associate Curator for Oceanic Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Dr. Beth Harris.
Want to join the conversation?
- What type of tool would the Polynesia used to carve the shape of the sperm whales tooth wouldn't it be hard to carve or take very delicate time to do?(3 votes)
- At2:46What is the story of the God Kanaloa?(1 vote)
- Kanaloa is elsewhere known as Tangaroa, you can read more fully about him here http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/knowledge/Tangaroa.html(3 votes)
- Did the Polynesia people have any Princesses or Female like Gods of the sea?(1 vote)
Video transcript
(jazzy piano music) - [Beth] We're in the gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art that houses amazing works from Polynesia and we're
looking at a necklace that dates to the early
mid-19th century from Hawaii. - [Maia] This is a spectacular necklace which incorporates these heavy bolts of very finely plaited
and braided human hair. - [Beth] And the decorative
form at the bottom that curves upward is
made from whale ivory. Both the hair and the ivory are very important materials here. - [Maia] Yes, it's the materiality
of the various elements of this necklace that
really point to the deeper cosmological framework in which operated. The sperm whale tooth, this
ivory that this pendant is carved from is a relic of Kanaloa, Kanaloa is the god that
presides over the realm of the ocean, the moana,
and this is a Tapu's face. - [Beth] So when you're wearing this you're announcing your
relationship to the god. - [Maia] This was ceremonial regalia. Chiefs wore these to assert
their divine right to rule. Chiefs really are deemed to
have direct descent from gods. And wearing the condensed
bone of the god that presides over the ocean and wearing
the immaculately plaited, finely braided hair of your ancestors creates this very powerful
means of asserting your legitimacy and your right to rule. And that pendant is spectacularly carved. You can see how it tapers in
gently and then flares out where it has this horizontal ridge. And then it tucks down and up into this beautifully fluid upward curve. - [Beth] And that curve
is very thinly carved. It looks fragile. - [Maia] You can see that very
fine rim, it's so perfect. It looks very much like a tongue. This may have been a reference to oratory and it's the beginnings of a circle. So if you'd imagine that
this chief may well have been wearing a mahiole or a feathered helmet along with a feathered cape, no doubt. The mahiole or feathered
helmets include a raised crest which protected the head
which is the seat of power. And so curving down from the top it infers this full circle which the
head of the chief is embedded. - [Beth] And the contrast between these materials is so stark. - Yeah.
- We have the matte texture of the hair and then the luminous
surface of the whalebone. - [Maia] You can really see
that it's a whale ivory, it's a tooth of a sperm whale because of that creamy outer layer
but then you can see this yellowy dentate core which runs
down the center part of it. - [Beth] And it almost reads like gold. - [Maia] It's incredibly valuable. Whales were not hunted, islanders would wait until
they beached on the reef. Whales are the embodiment or
essence of the god of Kanaloa. - [Beth] So we see this in a
museum case and it's important to remember, although we can admire this, and look at it closely
as an aesthetic object, that it was something that
was worn that had very specific meaning to those who looked at it and to the person who
owned it and wore it. - [Maia] These are heirlooms,
these are sacred treasures, they were handed down through generations, and they retain this power and vitality. They're not static artworks,
they're really vital, living objects which link us to the past. (jazzy piano music)