MAIA NUKU: “At the time when the Earth became hot, at the time when the heavens turned about,
at the time when the sun was darkened to cause the moon to shine, at the time of makahiki,
then became the rich and fertile mud.
This was the source of the Earth, the source of the darkness that made darkness, the source
of the deep night that made nice, the intense darkness, the deep darkness, nothing but night.
Hanau ka po, the night gave birth.”
And so begins the Kumilipo, the Hawaiian genealogical creation chant that
grounds us in the long ancestral night of Polynesia; over 2,000 lines that describe
in glorious detail the generation of the universe from its earliest beginnings in the depths
of darkness.
When recited, the steady rhythm of this majestic chant actively emulates each phase of evolution,
tracing the rich heritage of gods, men and women, and the chiefs from whom they descended.
Throughout Polynesia origin stories recount the creation of the universe in these
same terms.
Tepau, the endlessly deep night, pulsates, reverberating steadily for many eons, until
finally, space begins to hollow itself out and light seeps in.
This is atea, space and light, the vast expanse of sky, the beginnings of a new consciousness
heralded by the light.
The exhibition celebrates this powerful moment, Polynesia’s cosmological equivalent
to the big bang, when sacred light floods the dark ancestral night, initiating a dynamic
new era, in which strings of islands were vigorously birthed into being and the first
generation of gods were born.
For Polynesians, the relationship with the divine remains grounded in the wood, bones,
feathers, and fiber of the island and ocean environments from which people themselves
once sprang.
To honor this kinship, artists drew directly from the natural world.
This evening we celebrate the creative ingenuity of those Polynesian artists, who drew from
the realms of sky, sea, and land to express this ancestral relationship with the an—
with the land and the ocean.
Artists from the islands of Fiji, Tonga, and Niue in the west; from Tahiti, Mangareva,
the Austral and Cook Islands to their east; and the Hawaiian islands in the extreme north
of Polynesia.
Focusing on these distinct island groups as anchor points, the exhibition explores
the ways in which Polynesians distilled these ideas as they migrated across vast tracks
of ocean, settling new territories over the course of millennia.
I would like to thank everyone involved for their many contributions in bringing this
exhibition into being.
My sincere thanks goes to all the lenders; the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem; the Peabody
Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University; the Menil Collection; and also
two individuals, Dr. Gordon Sze, and Mr. Block— Mark Blackburn, both long-term supporters
of the arts of Polynesia and the Pacific, and enthusiastic partners in our mission to
expand and raise the profile of the Pacific’s uniquely eloquent arts.
Polynesian art has been a great source of pleasure for them over the course
of many decades, and they’ve graciously agreed to temporarily part with key works
from each of their collections for almost an entire year.
And we’re greatly appreciative of that.
It’s been a great pleasure working with colleagues in departments across the museum.
I’d like to thank the exhibition and design teams, experience our exhibition designer,
Fabiana Weinberg, who has tended to details with a precision and care that I greatly appreciate.
Alex Viault, senior graphics designer.
Both have brought their skills and vision together to accommodate what as been a hugely
rewarding and productive collaboration.
Thank you to Fred Segar and his exceptional team of mount makers; the lighting
team; editorial; and the quite brilliant conservation and collections group in my own department
of the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, Christine Giuntini, Caitlin Mahony, David
Rhoads, and Arthur Polendo—all of whom have seen it— seen to it that this space is quite
literally shining with light and vitality this evening.
I do hope you enjoy the show.
In just a moment, I will hand over to His Excellency Solo Mara, Fijian Ambassador to
the United States in Washington, D.C., who will say a few works to mark the occasion
of this exhibition.
We are honored and delighted to host you this evening, and thank you so much for joining
us in this celebration tonight.
We will then hand over to colleagues, friends, and associates from the Hawaiian community
here in New York, led by Marcus Mazza, who joins us from the Bishop Museum in Hawaii,
who will lead appropriate ritual protocols for the ancestral treasures assembled before us
I do hope you have a fantastic evening.
And after you’ve seen the show, please do make sure you make it over to the larger Oceanic
gallery, where we hope to entertain you and host you in true Pacific style, with some
song and dance a bit later.
Thank you.
[applause]
NAIVAKARURUBALAVU SOLO MARA: [inaudible].
I’m indeed honored to be here to lend the Fijian peoples’ and government support to
this exhibition.
And I’m sure the Pacific Island governments, representatives join me, too, in appreciating
and supporting this exhibition, to which I— I would like to thank Maia Nuku, the curator,
for the kind invitation; and to the Met Museum, for the initiative to host a Pacific Island
art exhibition here in New York.
Over the years, during the course of my role as Fiji’s ambassador,
I’ve come to appreciate the richness and diversity of Pacific Island culture through
my association with museums and universities in Europe and here in the USA, and the exhibition
of their unique collection of Pacific Island artifacts.
I always get mixed feelings when viewing these exhibitions.
First, you get the overwhelming sense of pride in sharing a strong cultural connection to
the people who made these beautifully-crafted artifacts hundreds and thousands of years
ago.
And recognizing not only the richness and diversity, but also the superb skills
involved in creating them.
But one is also inevitably overcome with a strong sense of loss when you recognize that
some of the unique skills and traditional technologies required to design and produce
these artifacts and structures have been lost.
Some with the early arrivals of Christian missionaries, who associate the creation of
some of these beautifully-created pieces with ancestral worship or other un-Christian ritual
practices, and therefore banned it.
But artifacts have occupied a place of importance in pre-Christian and precolonial
island society, Pacific Island societies.
Intricate wood carvings, detailed designs carved into or forged from whales’ tooth
and ivory played an essential part in relationships of all kinds, both between people and between
people and sources of diving power, mostly ancestors.
In Fijian artifacts, like those from other Pacific Island countries, as evident from
collection s kept here at the Met Museum and museums around the world, one would note that
artifacts are almost invariably well-made.
Not only to withstand the demanding climactic conditions of the tropics, but made
with pride, to please relatives, chiefs and gods, or God.
Intricate and design[s] woven into mats; stenciled on tapa cloth, or masi; carved into wooden
utensils of everyday use, like war clubs also denote the owners’ status or their traditional
role in the village.
And these designs, patterns, skillsets and methods using in producing these
artifacts also reflect extensive cultural interaction between the three major cultural
groups of the Pacific Island region.
Namely, Polynesia, who we will viewing this evening, but also the rich cultural
heritage of Melanesia and Micronesia.
Traditional artifacts also flow along the pathway of relationships.
In the Pacific Island region, exchanges of gifts of goods and artifacts between coastal
and hinterland communities and between islands often strengthens relationships and prevents
tribal conflicts, as more people become dependent on these trading systems and routes for their
sustenance.
The artifacts in this exhibition also help educate us, in the twenty-first
century, in the way our ancestors lived in harmony with nature and the environment.
The Pacific Island region faces many development challenges today.
Prominent among these are those associated with climate change and environment degradation
from human activities.
And our ancestors speak to us, through these exhibitions of historic artifacts, on the
value of sustainable approaches to development.
This exhibition, like those before it and those that will come after it, is also
providing a platform to acquire— to acquire back those traditional knowledge and skills
necessary to produce— reproduce some of these magnificent pieces.
Recent exhibitions of Pacific Island artifacts in Europe have resulted in the revival of
the building of double-hulled ocean-voyaging canoes, the like of which had helped settle
the Pacific Island region.
As a student of history, my appreciation of these cultural artifacts stem[s] from the
fact that these were made by individuals or groups of people that selected raw materials,
processed them, and pro— and transformed them into beautiful cultural artifacts of significance.
These were all handmade with fingers or a modest toolkit.
Their production involved precise hand-eye coordination and the fine judgment of form,
volume, design, balance, and proportion.
It is this which makes looking at a body of work[?], a barkcloth or a head— headrest
or headpiece such a pleasing experience, and I do hope you will enjoy that are exhibited
today in the same light.
And for that, I thank you for your attendance; and for Maia and the Met Museum, for their initiative.
Thank you.
[applause]