PROJECT FIJI United Kingdom—Many museums in the UK hold underappreciated 60 collections of artworks from the former English colony of Fiji. Working with this premise, Stephen Hooper of the Sainsbury Research Unit at the University of East Anglia initiated a unique research project: For the past three years, the SRU has offered consultation services and display advice to any institution that requests it for the purpose of highlighting its Fijian collection. With its ability to provide expertise, photographs, archival information, and documentation, Professor Hooper’s team has tried to help museums reveal to the public their poorly known collections of artifacts—largely weapons, barkcloth, and objects carved from whale tooth—thus disseminating knowledge that is all too often held only by specialists. The project, which has been supported by Fijian authorities, has also shed light on the history of commercial and political relations between the United Kingdom and Fiji, which date back to the early nineteenth century. This phase of the project concluded in April of this year, but other aspects of it are continuing to develop. FROM SAMOA WITH LOVE Munich—The islands of Western Samoa in the Pacific Ocean are part of the Polynesian complex but, like most Oceanic states, came under Western colonial domination. Between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the First World War, this particular island group was controlled by Germany. Encouraged by government support, Germans developed an insatiable curiosity for the empire’s colonies and their “primitive” inhabitants. Exhibitions of “savages” were in vogue and became so widespread in both Europe and the United States during this period that they became a distinct genre. In Germany between 1895 and 1911, this trend led to the production of exotic spectacles featuring Samoan dancers and musicians. These popular forms of entertainment helped disseminate an artificial and reductionist vision of Polynesian cultures that permeated the collective consciousness of the West deeply and durably. An exhibition on view at Munich’s Museum für Völkerkunde until October 5, 2014, examines the origins and content of such spectacles in a way that has never before been done, shedding light on the little-known history of the cultural exchanges that took place between Germany and its former colony. Using period photographs as well as objects from the museum’s collection, the exhibition’s curators also enlisted the aid of Samoan nationals to help shed light on this unique period in their history. ABOVE RIGHT: Cover of a program for Unsere Neuen Landsleute showing a Samoan warrior in front of German flags, 1900. © Stadtmuseum Berlin. Necklace. Samoa. Whale tooth, coconut fiber. © Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, Munich. Photo: Marianne Franke. BELOW: Daughter of a chief, 1896. Private collection.
untitled
To see the actual publication please follow the link above