Oceanic Art: Deity, Mask, Tapa Cloth, and Portraits in Micronesia, Torres Strait, Niue, and New Zealand

Female deity

Wooden fertility figurine placed in temples.

Function of Female deity

Occupied an important place in fertility ceremonies.

Rituals associated with Female deity

Marked beginning of the harvest and involved offerings and dances.

Surfaces of Female deity

Smoothed with pumice, a light and porous volcanic rock.

Context of Nukuoro

A small isolated atoll in the Caroline Islands inhabited since the 8th century.

Impact of missionaries on Nukuoro

By 1913, many pre-Christian traditions were lost.

Buk (mask)

Mask made from turtle shell, wood, fibers, and feathers.

Function of Buk mask

Part of a costume for a masquerade ceremony.

Who could wear Buk mask?

Only senior men could wear these masks.

Context of Torres Strait

Body of water between New Guinea and Australia, most islands are uninhabited.

Hiapo (tapa cloth)

Bark cloth with freehand painting from Niue.

How to make Hiapo

Harvest inner bark, pound it flat, coat with arrowroot paste, and let dry.

Function of Hiapo

Utilitarian for clothing, bedding, and ceremonial display.

Tamati Waka Nene

Portrait painted by Gottfried Lindauer based on a photograph.

Content of Tamati Waka Nene

Chief of the Ngati Hao people, wears a fine cloak and holds a hand weapon.

Moko

Facial tattoos used by the Māori, denoting status or identity.

Themes in Female deity

Deity, religion, ceremony, sexuality, fertility.

Themes in Buk mask

Mask, animals in art, ceremony, ancestors, materials with significance.

Themes in Hiapo

Offering, utilitarian, status, textile, decorative arts.

Themes in Tamati Waka Nene

Portrait, ideal man, cross-cultural, commemoration, status.

Spanish navigator Monteverde

First European to sight Nukuoro in 1806.

Impact of colonization on Torres Strait Islanders

Led to the burning and destruction of masks.

Captain James Cook

Reached Niue in 1774.

London Missionary Society

Arrived in Niue in 1830 to convert natives.

Gender roles in traditional Polynesian societies

Men's arts made of hard materials; women's arts made of soft materials.

Ancestral presence in Māori tradition

Brought into the world of the living through portraits.

Significance of Hiapo

Sign of status, often specially prepared for people of rank.