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ART ON VIEW 114 FIG. 19 (above): Priest’s kava (yaqona) dish, buburau ni bete, in pedestal form. Fiji. Early–mid 19th century. Wood. L: 26.6 cm. Collected by Baron Anatole von Hügel at Nakorovatu, Viti Levu, 27 June 1875. Cambridge, MAA, inv. Z 3372. FIG. 20 (below): Priest’s kava (yaqona) dish, buburau ni bete, in duck form. Fiji. Early–mid 19th century Wood. L: 47.4 cm. Probably collected by Captain John Erskine of HMS Havannah, 1849. Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, inv. UEA 912. in Tonga in 1777 during Cook’s third voyage, met Fijians there and observed that Fijians “are much respected here, not only perhaps as a powerfull sic people but from their ingenuity, as they seem even to exceed the inhabitants of Tonga in that respect if we might judge from several things that came from that place: as their clubs and spears which are carv’d in a very masterly manner, their cloth which is beautifully checquer’d, variegated matts, their earthen pots, and some other things which have all a cast of superiority in the workmanship” (Beaglehole 1967: 958–59). Please come to Norwich and judge for yourselves. Fiji: Art and Life in the Pacifi c 15 October 2016–12 February 2017 Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts University of East Anglia, Norwich scva.ac.uk This article results from the AHRC-funded research project Fijian Art (grant AH/1003622/1). REFERENCES Beaglehole, John (ed.), 1967. The Journals of Captain James Cook: The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery 1776– 1780. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, published for the Hakluyt Society. Clunie, Fergus, 2013. “Tapua: ‘Polished Ivory Shrines’ of Tongan Gods.” Journal of the Polynesian Society, 122(2): 161–210. Hau’ofa, Epeli, 1994. Our Sea of Islands. The Contemporary Pacifi c, 6(1): 147–61. Hooper, Steven, 2013. “‘Supreme among Our Valuables’: Whale Teeth Tabua, Chieftainship, and Power in Eastern Fiji.” Journal of the Polynesian Society, 122(2): 103–60. Siddons, Richard, 1925. “Captain Richard Siddons’ Experiences in Fiji, 1809–15.” In E. F. Im Thurn and L. C. Wharton, The Journal of William Lockerby, Sandalwood Trader in the Fijian Islands … . London: Hakluyt Society, series 2(52): 161–76. there are early accounts of the use of these necklaces not only as impressive regalia, but as diplomatic gifts between Fijian chiefs. Fiji produced perhaps the greatest variety in its artistic production of any island group in the Pacifi c, with a wide range of forms, styles, and materials. For example, there are more than twenty types of bowls and twenty types of clubs (fi gs. 16–21). The Fiji exhibition and its catalog will celebrate the richness and diversity of Fijian artworks and highlight the superb skills involved in creating them (fi gs. 1, 12, 14, and 15). They are distinguished by technical ingenuity and imaginative design, qualities that were noticed by early European visitors. William Anderson,


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