Divine Domesticities (2024)

Journal of Museum Ethnography

The main focus of this paper is on how Tongan and non–Tongan ngatu‘uli have been curated in fine art galleries in New Zealand. We discuss a selection of exhibitions that have contributed to an appreciation of ngatu‘uli within the art world, paying particular attention to ground breaking and ground staking exhibitions at Auckland Art Gallery in 2002, and again in 2012, and at Fresh Gallery Otara in 2009, Pataka Museum in 2014, and Pah Homestead in 2015.

Collecting in the South Sea: The Voyage of Bruni d’Entrecasteaux 1791-1794, ed. Bronwen Douglas, Fanny Wonu Veys, and Billie Lythberg (Leiden: Sidestone Press), 142–148, 2018

Finely made 18th-century Tongan combs were exchanged with European voyagers, despite their being associated with the head—the most sacred part of the body. This chapter considers why, and explores details of their making, use, nomenclature and significance. This book is a study of ‘collecting’ undertaken by Joseph Antoine Bruni d’Entrecasteaux and his shipmates in Tasmania, the western Pacific Islands, and Indonesia. In 1791–1794 Bruni d’Entrecasteaux led a French naval expedition in search of the lost vessels of La Pérouse which had last been seen by Europeans at Botany Bay in March 1788. After Bruni d’Entrecasteaux died near the end of the voyage and the expedition collapsed in political disarray in Java, its collections and records were subsequently scattered or lost.The book’s core is a richly illustrated examination, analysis, and catalogue of a large array of ethnographic objects collected during the voyage, later dispersed, and recently identified in museums in France, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States. The focus on artefacts is informed by a broad conception of collecting as grounded in encounters or exchanges with Indigenous protagonists and also as materialized in other genres—written accounts, vocabularies, and visual representations (drawings, engravings, and maps).Historically, the book outlines the antecedents, occurrences, and aftermath of the voyage, including its location within the classic era of European scientific voyaging (1766–1840) and within contemporary colonial networks. Particular chapters trace the ambiguous histories of the extant collections. Ethnographically, contributors are alert to local settings, relationships, practices, and values; to Indigenous uses and significance of objects; to the reciprocal, dialogic nature of collecting; to local agency or innovation in exchanges; and to present implications of objects and their histories, especially for modern scholars and artists, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

What is different between the two exhibition catalogues? This time the team is able to draw upon the extensive research that has been undertaken by numerous individuals on different aspects of Hawaiian quiltmaking and, in particular, the work of the Hawaiian Quilt Research Project, a nonprofit organization that, since 1990 has registered more than 1500 quilt patterns from thirtyseven public and private collections and more than 1,200 Hawaiian quilts.[1] The introduction to the history of quiltmaking is now enriched and expanded, including important newly-collected information that explores the influence of quilt shows, pattern makers, teachers (especially county extension agents and those affiliated with museums and hotels), collectors (especially Laurence S. Rockefeller), marketing of patterns, tourism, and the inclusion of articles about Hawaiian quiltmaking in nationally-distributed women’s magazines. Hawaiians had a rich tradition of textile production before contact with Wester...

Archives of Sexual Behavior, 1975

Records of the Auckland Museum, 2017

The recent examination of textiles collected from dry caves and rock-shelters in Te Wao Nui a Tiriwa(Waitakere Ranges), and held at Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira revealed an assortmentof woven, twined, twisted and plaited fragments. The whatu (twined) fragments from WhakaariPā (Lion Rock) are rare examples of fine weaving associated with the use of kōkōwai (red ochre).The twined fragments are likely to be kākahu (cloak) remains as they share structural attributesof known cloaks. However, they also display rare forms of whenu (warp) and hukahuka (tags).The fragments demonstrate specialized knowledge of fibre preparation and cloak manufacturingtechniques and have a range of elaborate decorations.

Records of the Auckland Museum

Records of the Auckland Museum 52: , 2017

The recent examination of textiles collected from dry caves and rock-shelters in Te Wao Nui a Tiriwa (Waitakere Ranges), and held at Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira revealed an assortmentof woven, twined, twisted and plaited fragments. The whatu (twined) fragments from Whakaari Pā (Lion Rock) are rare examples of fine weaving associated with the use of kōkōwai (red ochre). The twined fragments are likely to be kākahu (cloak) remains as they share structural attributes of known cloaks. However, they also display rare forms of whenu (warp) and hukahuka (tags). The fragments demonstrate specialized knowledge of fibre preparation and cloak manufacturing techniques and have a range of elaborate decorations.

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One wooden and four textile siapo/tapa design boards provenanced to Samoa, known as upeti and upeti fala respectively, from Canterbury Museum’s collections are thoroughly described, documented and illustrated. Relevant literature is reviewed and evaluated against the findings of this material culture analysis. The implications of the new information about upeti fala and upeti are discussed and potential areas of new research are suggested.

The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa) collects and exhibits Tongan barkcloth (ngatu) to illustrate curatorial narratives about Pacific peoples in New Zealand. I discuss the materiality and provenances of five ngatu at Te Papa, their trajectories into the museum's Pacific Cultures collection and, where relevant, how they have been exhibited. I consider the role of Tongan curators and communities in determining how, when and which ngatu will enter the collection, and how Tongan identity will be imaged by the objects. The paper concludes with a close examination of contemporary descriptive and evaluative nomenclature for ngatu made with synthetic materials, including examples at Te Papa.

Journal of the Polynesian Society, 2013

Interstices: Journal of Architecture and Related Arts, 2009

Journal of Pacific History, 2006

Indian Arts and Crafts Board, 2019

AFRREV IJAH: An International Journal of Arts and Humanities, 2017

Akwa-Ocha, which literally means white cloth, is a popular hand-woven cloth among the Enuani people, who are also referred to as Aniocha people in present day Delta State in South-south geographical zone of Nigeria. The cloth is designed and woven for all-purposes but can also be customized to suit particular occasions or client of high social status. Akwa-Ocha is embellished with motifs and symbols reflective of the people’s religious as well as social beliefs. These motifs range from mundane to the spiritual and incorporate plants, animals, man-made objects, geometric shapes, as well as cosmological symbols. Beyond their ordinary function of clothing the wearers, Akwa-Ocha woven cloths assume other important and symbolic roles, such as social and other ritual significance. How did this cloth gain such significance among the Aniocha people? Does such importance offer any interpretation of the changing social political landscape in modern Nigeria? In what ways have Akwa-Ocha respond...