Unit 9: The Pacific

Nan Madol

700-1600

Pohnpei, Micronesia

Saudeleur Dynasty 

Basalt boulders and prismatic columns 

Now abandoned political/ceremonial center 

Spread over 200 acres 

Built of megaliths 

THEMES: megaliths, abandoned

Moai on Platform

1100-1600 CE 

Easter Island 

Volcanic tuff figures on basalt base 

14 ft. high sculptures 

Apu: platforms

Ahu’ula (feather cape) 

Late 18th century CE

Hawaiian 

Feathers and fiber 

Used for ceremonies and battles

Hawaiian male nobility 

Patterns= lineage 

Red: protected by gods

THEME: luxury, status, personal ornamentation

Staff god

Late 18th to early 19th 

Rarotonga, Cook Islands, central polynesia 

Wood, tapa, fiber, feathers

Buk (mask)

Mid to late 19th cent. CE

Torres Strait

Turtle shell, wood, fiber, feathers, and shell 

3 zones: face, bird body, feathers

Hiapo (tapa)

1850-1900 CE

Niue

Tapa or bark cloth, free hand painting 

Often geometric patterns- red, white, black 

THEMES: geometric, functional objects, fabric arts, women’s arts

Female Deity

18th to 19th cent. CE

Nukuro, Micronesia 

Wood 

Local deities, placed in temples, important in religious ceremonies, highly stylized 

THEMES: cross culture, religious, decorated

Tamati Waka Nene

1890 CE

Artist: Gottfried Lindauer

Oil on canvas 

Ta moko- permanent tattoo 

Ancestor portrait 

Traditional clothing

Navigation Chart

19th to early 20th c. CE

Marshall Island, Micronesia 

Wood fiber 

Charts made of wooden sticks and shells 

Marks locations of islands, swells, and wave patterns  

Malagan display and mask

20 c. CE

New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea 

Wood, pigment, fiber, shell

Carved for funerals, 3D

THEMES: funerary art, yearly ritual

Presentation of Fijian mats and tapa cloths to Queen Elizabeth II

1953 CE

Fiji, Polynesia

multimedia performance 

Photographic documentation 

Presentation of bark cloth