Collection place: Tahiti, Windward Islands, Society Islands / Culture or time period: Polynesian - Hearst Museum Portal Search Results

Start Over Collection place Tahiti, Windward Islands, Society Islands Culture or time period Polynesian

Hearst Museum object titled Carved head, accession number 11-43115, described as Figurine. Wood, carved, bust of female with long hair. height - 26.0 cm.

Hearst Museum object titled Skirt, accession number 11-43284, described as Skirt in natural colored fiber, decorated with fringes rosettes and tassels in blue, and bivalve shells. The word “MAAO” is spelled out around the waist band in seeds on a string. Below the waist band there are seeds and shells draped in festoon. Materials: Fiber: Hibiscus inner bark. Shell: (Ellobiidae) snail shells, bivalve shells. Seeds: Abrus precatorius, “jequirity bean” (”Black eyed Susans”). The skirt was made for presentation when the Polynesian Voyaging society’s Hawaiian double hulled canoe “Hokule’a” reached Tahiti. The canoe was Hawaii’s USA Bicentennial project. The collector, Dr. Ben Finney, Professor of Anthropology at University of Hawaii and one of the tree founding members of the Polynesian Voyaging Society states that the skirt is a festive costume and not a dance skirt nor a tourist skirt.