Pacific Island Art Oldest inhabited places on earth. Aboriginals reached Australia 50,000 years ago , But most islands have been inhabited for a short amount of time. 1300 went to Fiji via 2 hulled sail boats. Tonga reached in 420 BCE and Samoa 200BCE. New Zealand in the 10th century. Magellan started the white exploration of the Pacific, implanting customs, religions, Values and technologies. Men and women with clear roles in the arts. Men carved and made maps. Women made pottery and wove, and made bark cloth, tapa. They were soaked and fused by beating and then stenciled

Image 213.Nan Mandol 700- 1600 , basalt bolders, Micronesia Ancient City was capital of Micronesia. 92 islands connected by canals 170 acres in all. Built out onto the water like Venice. Seawalls 15-20 feet tall- 35 ft. thick Canals flushed with tide water. City built to separate the upper and lower classes. King lived near the lower classes to keep and eye on. Curved walls make it look like a boat.

Nan Madol- built on top of a coral reef

Image 217 Female deity 18th 19th century, wood, Micronesia, Nukuoru statues The first Europeans to collect the Nukuoro sculptures found them coarse and clumsy. It is not known whether the breadfruit tree (Artocarpus altilis) images were carved with local adzes equipped with Tridacna shell blades or with western metal blade tools (Tridacna is a genus of large saltwater clams). The surfaces were smoothed with pumice which was abundantly available on the beach. All the sculptures, ranging in size from 30 cm to 217 cm, have similar proportions: an ovoid head tapering slightly at the chin and a columnar neck. The eyes and nose are either discretely shown as slits or not at all. The shoulders slope downwards and the chest is indicated by a simple line. Some female figures have rudimentary breasts. Some of the sculptures, be they male, female or of indeterminate sex, have a sketchy indication of hands and feet. The buttocks are always flattened and set on a flexed pair of legs. Kept in religious buildings. Represent deities. Sometimes dressed. Abstraction. Chin pointed to face; no facial features. Horizontal lines indicate the knees, waist, neck eyes

Navigation Charts in Micronesia- Marshall Islands Image 221 19th – 20th centuries, wood and fiber Charts composed to get to a location and memorized. Diagonals depict the wind and tides. Shells indicate the islands. Charts are water proof. Used to train pilots as well.

Image 216 Ahu ula- the feathered cape from Hawaii- 18th century, feathers and fiber, Museum of the Americas, Madrid Worn by men for protection, 500,000 feathers, 7 usable feathers- each bird, Red was a royal color, coconut fiber as a base with feathers tied to it. British Museum ( Ahu ula means red)

Cook Islands, Staff god. Rarotonga 18th-19th Century- wood, tapa, fiber, feathers British Museum Stood upright in the village center. Large head on top with others underneath it. Elongated body. They varied in size from about 73 cm to nearly four meters, like this rare example. It is made of ironwood wrapped with lengths of barkcloth. The upper part of the staff consists of a carved head above smaller carved figures. The lower end is a carved phallus. Some missionaries removed and destroyed phalluses from carvings, considering them obscene. Reverend John Williams observed of this image that the barkcloth contained red feathers and pieces of pearl shell, known as the manava or spirit of the god. He also recorded seeing the islanders carrying the image upright on a litter. This image was among fourteen presented to Reverend John Williams at Rarotonga in May 1827.  Central section is a roll of tapa. Inside the roll are red feathers and pearl shells which are sacred and are the soul of the god. Most were destroyed by British. Thrown down in front of Christian church to show that there has been a transition.

Image 219 Hiapo tapa from Niue, 1850-1900, bark cloth and freehand or stenciled painting. Bark cloth from mulberry tree. Warn as clothing before cotton was imported. Honor or celebration represented in each.

Image 220 Gottfried Lindauer, Tamati Waka Nene 1890, oil on canvas, Aukland Art Center, New Zealand New Zealand painter – painted the Maori chieftains. Worked on commission. Subject was a convert to Weslyan Faith ( Anglican) Post Humus, Emphasis on rank, the tatoos, staff with an eye, feathers from the hatchet and the greenstone earrings. He was painted from a series of photographs.

Image 222 Malagan Mask or Mallangan or Malanggan Mask from Papau New Guinea, 20th century, wood, pigment, fiber, and shell Send the souls of the dead on their way to the next world Can begin months after deaths an last for months Ceremonies free the living of the dead After ceremonies are left to rot; they are commissioned and are the soul of the person, not the image. Detailed carvings, indications of the clan, and living members of the family. Large hair is hairstyle of the living. Black, yellow and red are colors of violence, war and magic

Image 218 Buk Mask, Torres Strait, 19th Century, turtle shell, wood, feathers, fiber, shell, Metropolitan Museum NY Water passage between Australia and New Guinea. Unique to this region, male initiation ceremony, death or fertility Human form and animal form with bird on top and hair. Pieces stitched together. Dancers in the movements of the bird https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-oceania/melanesia/v/buk-torres

Image 218 Fiji mats presented to Queen Elizabeth 1953 Performance Art?????

Image 214 Moai Statuary from Easter Island, basalt 900 statues male all facing inland, 50 tons each, carved in situ Erected onto platforms, above the cremation sites, Persons deified after death, white coral on eyes, hands on bellies, some have top knots.

http://www. smithsonianmag http://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/history/how-were-easter-islands-gigantic-statues-ac/