Cook Islands art
Encyclopedia
Wood carving
is a common art form in the Cook Islands
. Sculpture in stone is much rarer although there are some excellent carvings
in basalt
by Mike Taveoni. The proximity of islands in the southern group helped produce a homogeneous style of carving but which had special developments in each island. Rarotonga
is known for its fisherman's gods and staff-gods, Atiu for its wooden seats, Mitiaro
, Mauke
and Atiu
for mace and slab gods and Mangaia
for its ceremonial adzes. Most of the original wood carvings were either spirited away by early European collectors or were burned in large numbers by missionary zealots.
Today, carving is no longer the major art form with the same spiritual and cultural emphasis given to it by the Maori in New Zealand. However, there are continual efforts to interest young people in their heritage and some good work is being turned out under the guidance of older carvers. Atiu, in particular, has a strong tradition of crafts both in carving and local fibre arts such as tapa
. Mangaia is the source of many fine adzes carved in a distinctive, idiosyncratic style with the so-called double-k design. Mangaia also produces food pounders carved from the heavy calcite found in its extensive limestone
caves.
. It is believed that families had their own symbols, much like some British families have crests.
, apparently combine images of gods with their human descendants. They range in length between 28 inches (71 cms) and 18 feet (5.5 m) and were carried and displayed horizontally. At one end there is a schematized blade-shaped head and arms of the progenitive god with a succession of little figures rising from his body, alternatively full-face and in profile with penis erect. The staff itself terminated in a phallus
. But this elaborately carved sexual imagery had less importance for the Rarotongans than the feathers and pieces of shell representing the soul of the god and enclosed in yards of bark cloth
wound around the center of the staff.
, who figured one of them and referred to it thus:
.
with respect. Its supernatural help could also be sought in times of distress. The symbol for the centipede
with a poisonous bite is a common totem of chiefs
and was normally tattooed on the chief's back.
Captain James Cook recorded tatau as the Tahitian term when he arrived there in 1769, although tatau is not the only word for this art form. In some French Polynesian islands and some Cook Islands it was known as nana'o.
quilts by hand. The designs are stunning. These beautiful and intricate works are made by women. They have great intrinsic value and become family heirloom
s.
They are often given as gifts of love and friendship. They supplanted the traditional giving of tapa cloth
on ceremonial occasions such as weddings, funerals and hair-cutting. Tivaevae is a communal activity and several women will work on them together. The original idea was introduced by the wives of missionaries from England and nuns from Tahiti who taught embroidery
, needlework
, sewing
and crochet
.
Tivaevae has played an important role in the daily life of Cook Island women. Since it is largely a social activity, it is nearly always carried out communally, it has had a major impact on the lives of the many women who practise it. Despite its European origin, patterns and techniques have evolved into styles which now belong quite distinctly to the Cooks. The tivaevae reflect the women's surroundings and usually employ designs of flowers, leaves, birds, fish, insects and animals.
. Buchanan will exhibit with BCA Gallery, Rarotonga in 2011.
Wood carving
Wood carving is a form of working wood by means of a cutting tool in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation of a wooden object...
is a common art form in the Cook Islands
Cook Islands
The Cook Islands is a self-governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand...
. Sculpture in stone is much rarer although there are some excellent carvings
Petroglyph
Petroglyphs are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images...
in basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
by Mike Taveoni. The proximity of islands in the southern group helped produce a homogeneous style of carving but which had special developments in each island. Rarotonga
Rarotonga
Rarotonga is the most populous island of the Cook Islands, with a population of 14,153 , out of the country's total population of 19,569.The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings and international airport are on Rarotonga...
is known for its fisherman's gods and staff-gods, Atiu for its wooden seats, Mitiaro
Mitiaro
Mitiaro, the fourth island in the Cook Islands group, is of volcanic origin. Standing in water 14,750 feet deep it is four miles across at its widest point.-Geography:...
, Mauke
Mauke
Mauke is a raised atoll island, the eastern most of the Cook Islands.-Geography:...
and Atiu
Atiu
Atiu, also known as Enuamanu , is an island lying at 187 km to the northeast of Rarotonga, in the Southern Islands group of the Cook Islands Archipelago.-Geography:...
for mace and slab gods and Mangaia
Mangaia
Mangaia is the most southerly of the Cook Islands and the second largest, after Rarotonga.-Geography:...
for its ceremonial adzes. Most of the original wood carvings were either spirited away by early European collectors or were burned in large numbers by missionary zealots.
Today, carving is no longer the major art form with the same spiritual and cultural emphasis given to it by the Maori in New Zealand. However, there are continual efforts to interest young people in their heritage and some good work is being turned out under the guidance of older carvers. Atiu, in particular, has a strong tradition of crafts both in carving and local fibre arts such as tapa
Tapa cloth
Tapa cloth is a bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, primarily in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, but as far afield as Niue, Cook Islands, Futuna, Solomon Islands, Java, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii...
. Mangaia is the source of many fine adzes carved in a distinctive, idiosyncratic style with the so-called double-k design. Mangaia also produces food pounders carved from the heavy calcite found in its extensive limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
caves.
Carving
Carving was an important part of ancient Cook Islands culture, although much of this is lost. Ancient Cook Islanders carved the poles of their huts, their canoes and weapons (clubs and spears). The patterns used were the same as that used in tatooing and dyed on tapa clothTapa cloth
Tapa cloth is a bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, primarily in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, but as far afield as Niue, Cook Islands, Futuna, Solomon Islands, Java, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii...
. It is believed that families had their own symbols, much like some British families have crests.
Staff god
Cult figures called staff-gods or atua rakau from RarotongaRarotonga
Rarotonga is the most populous island of the Cook Islands, with a population of 14,153 , out of the country's total population of 19,569.The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings and international airport are on Rarotonga...
, apparently combine images of gods with their human descendants. They range in length between 28 inches (71 cms) and 18 feet (5.5 m) and were carried and displayed horizontally. At one end there is a schematized blade-shaped head and arms of the progenitive god with a succession of little figures rising from his body, alternatively full-face and in profile with penis erect. The staff itself terminated in a phallus
Phallus
A phallus is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object such as a dildo, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic...
. But this elaborately carved sexual imagery had less importance for the Rarotongans than the feathers and pieces of shell representing the soul of the god and enclosed in yards of bark cloth
Tapa cloth
Tapa cloth is a bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, primarily in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, but as far afield as Niue, Cook Islands, Futuna, Solomon Islands, Java, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii...
wound around the center of the staff.
Fisherman's god
A number of images called the fisherman's god are found in museums. These images are likely to be of the sea god Tangaroa. Their function rests solely on the authority of John WilliamsJohn Williams (missionary)
John Williams was an English missionary, active in the South Pacific. Born near London, England, he was trained as a foundry worker and mechanic...
, who figured one of them and referred to it thus:
"An idol, of which the figure on the opposite side is a correct representation, was placed on the fore part of every fishing canoe; and when the natives were going on a fishing expedition, prior to setting off, they invariably presented offerings to the god, and invoked him to grant them success."
Weaving
The outer islands produce traditional weaving of fans, mats, basketware and hats. Particularly fine examples of rito hats are worn by women to church on Sundays. They are made from the uncurled fibre of the coconut palm and are of very high quality. The Polynesian equivalent of Panama hats, they are highly valued and are keenly sought by Polynesian visitors from Tahiti. Often, they are decorated with hatbands made of minuscule pupu shells which are painted and stitched on by hand. Although pupu are found on other islands, the collection and use of them in decorative work has become a speciality of MangaiaMangaia
Mangaia is the most southerly of the Cook Islands and the second largest, after Rarotonga.-Geography:...
.
Tattoo
Tattooing was forbidden in the Cook Islands after the arrival of missionaries, but has recently become popular again. Historically the Cook Islands tribes or clans each usually recognized a particular fish, bird, insect or plant that was sacred to that tribe and symbolized its unity. The ritual association requires members of the clan to treat the totemTotem
A totem is a stipulated ancestor of a group of people, such as a family, clan, group, lineage, or tribe.Totems support larger groups than the individual person. In kinship and descent, if the apical ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it is called a totem...
with respect. Its supernatural help could also be sought in times of distress. The symbol for the centipede
Centipede
Centipedes are arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda of the subphylum Myriapoda. They are elongated metameric animals with one pair of legs per body segment. Despite the name, centipedes can have a varying number of legs from under 20 to over 300. Centipedes have an odd number of pairs of...
with a poisonous bite is a common totem of chiefs
Ariki
An Ariki , ‘Ariki , Aliki , Ali‘i , Ari'i or ‘Eiki is or was a member of a hereditary chiefly or noble rank in Polynesia.-Aotearoa Ariki:Political leadership or governance in Māori society has traditionally come from two...
and was normally tattooed on the chief's back.
Captain James Cook recorded tatau as the Tahitian term when he arrived there in 1769, although tatau is not the only word for this art form. In some French Polynesian islands and some Cook Islands it was known as nana'o.
Tivaevae
A major art form peculiar to the Cook Islands is tīvaevae. This is needlework, specifically the making of patchworkPatchwork
Patchwork or "pieced work" is a form of needlework that involves sewing together pieces of fabric into a larger design. The larger design is usually based on repeat patterns built up with different colored shapes. These shapes are carefully measured and cut, straight-sided, basic geometric shapes...
quilts by hand. The designs are stunning. These beautiful and intricate works are made by women. They have great intrinsic value and become family heirloom
Heirloom
In popular usage, an heirloom is something, perhaps an antique or some kind of jewelry, that has been passed down for generations through family members....
s.
They are often given as gifts of love and friendship. They supplanted the traditional giving of tapa cloth
Tapa cloth
Tapa cloth is a bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, primarily in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, but as far afield as Niue, Cook Islands, Futuna, Solomon Islands, Java, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii...
on ceremonial occasions such as weddings, funerals and hair-cutting. Tivaevae is a communal activity and several women will work on them together. The original idea was introduced by the wives of missionaries from England and nuns from Tahiti who taught embroidery
Embroidery
Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....
, needlework
Needlework
Needlework is a broad term for the handicrafts of decorative sewing and textile arts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework...
, sewing
Sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era...
and crochet
Crochet
Crochet is a process of creating fabric from yarn, thread, or other material strands using a crochet hook. The word is derived from the French word "crochet", meaning hook. Hooks can be made of materials such as metals, woods or plastic and are commercially manufactured as well as produced by...
.
Tivaevae has played an important role in the daily life of Cook Island women. Since it is largely a social activity, it is nearly always carried out communally, it has had a major impact on the lives of the many women who practise it. Despite its European origin, patterns and techniques have evolved into styles which now belong quite distinctly to the Cooks. The tivaevae reflect the women's surroundings and usually employ designs of flowers, leaves, birds, fish, insects and animals.
Contemporary art
Contemporary Artists Eruera Nia and Tim Buchanan are featured at the new International Terminal, Rarotonga Airport. 36 of Nia's concrete casts are positioned throughout the terminal while Buchanan's 10 metre mural farewell's passengers as they are processed through customs and security. In late 2010, two of Nia's sculptures were acquired for the permanent collection of the National Gallery of AustraliaNational Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...
. Buchanan will exhibit with BCA Gallery, Rarotonga in 2011.
See also
- Literature of the Cook IslandsLiterature of the Cook IslandsWritten Cook Islands literature has in some ways been a precursor to the development of Pacific Islands literature. Cook Islander Florence Frisbie was one of the Pacific Islands' first writers, publishing her autobiographical story Miss Ulysses of Puka Puka in 1948...
- Music of the Cook IslandsMusic of the Cook IslandsThe music of the Cook Islands is diverse. Christian music is extremely popular. Imene tuki is a form of unaccompanied vocal music known for a uniquely Polynesian drop in pitch at the end of the phrases, as well as staccato rhythmic outbursts of nonsensical syllables...
- History of the Cook IslandsHistory of the Cook IslandsThe Cook Islands are named after Captain James Cook, who visited the islands in 1773 and 1777. The Cook Islands became a British protectorate in 1888....
External links
- The Success Story of Cook Islands Art
- The Cook Islands Art and Crafts Guide
- Cook Islands Crafts: Art from the heart
- Unu (Slab God) - Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
- No'oanga (wooden seat) - Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
- Toki (ceremonial adze) - Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa