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Tribal Art Gallery

New guinea tribal art gallery specializes in selling art from the Pacific Islands. All artworks guaranteed as being authentic. The Gallery sources art made for indigenous use and not made for sale tourist pieces.

The majority of the tribal art for sale is from Papua New Guinea but we also sell pieces from Polynesia and all the Pacific Islands.

The website has numerous Articles on Pacific island Art

New Guinea tribal art gallery policy

We will refund any items purchased from the gallery. We ask that any requests for returns be within a week of its delivery. Postage on returns will be by the purchaser.

All photos are as accurate as we can make them. Photos of any damage will be available on the page the object is for sale. Any restorations will be in the description.

Our gallery accepts payment through Direct bank deposit paypal and cash. The tribal art Gallery is usually open by appointment only. Appointments by email or phone.

New Guinea Tribal Art is always happy to give advice about pieces. Tribal art is a highly specialized field and getting the right advice can be important.

New Guinea Tribal Art Gallery purchases

We will always try to buy pieces as aggressively as possible. We have some very good clients for Tribal Art and will pay the best prices for quality pieces.

No piece to large and no piece to small. Our criteria are the quality and authenticity of each object.

Gallery history

The gallery started in 2001 and in the early days, the majority of materials were field collected. Not all pieces collected or purchased are on the website. Certain pieces may be only available at shows in Paris or San Francisco.

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tribal art gallery | buy tribal art | tribal art for sale | new guinea art gallery

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Tribal art gallery specializing in art from New Guinea and the Pacific islands. Tribal art gallery deals in authentic old art and artifacts from Polynesia, the Maori and Pacific islands. Tribal art from these area is often called oceanic art or oceania art

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In treating all subjects, including death, Polynesian religions are based on experience rather than faith. Prominent among those experiences are encounters with many different types of gods and spirits. These include human beings who have died and assumed one of several possible forms. For instance, miscarried or aborted fetuses can be transmuted into vicious demons. Neglected souls can become wandering, homeless, pathetic ghosts. Revered relatives can be transformed into family gods. The diversity of such experience stimulates a wide variety of beliefs and practices.

Polynesians believe in life after death. Indeed, the wall between the living and the dead is more permeable than in modern Western culture. When a person is about to die, one of his or her souls can-unbeknownst to him or her-warn the immediate family. Shortly after dying, a person can visit relatives and friends. The family of the deceased prays for the soul's successful journey to the land of the dead. The dead can linger, however, around the living to whom they were especially attached. Elderly couples continue to converse long after one of them has died. The surviving lover can be pulled toward the new home of the beloved. According to the Polynesian belief system, the world of the living is in continual communion with that of the dead.

Family and friends must, therefore, establish methods for both detachment and attachment. The clothes and belongings of the deceased can be destroyed. At the wake of the deceased, the New Zealand mâori "trample" through the house to reclaim it for the living. In formal oratory, they call upon the ancestors for their blessing but dismiss them before the body of their speech. Throughout Polynesia, the troublesome presence of a dead person reveals the existence of unfinished business that must be resolved before the soul can depart in peace.

The positive relation to the ancestors and the recently dead is, however, one of the strengths of Polynesian culture. Genealogy provides identity as well as individuals upon whom one can call for help. An elder who has been revered as a leader in life does not lose his or her love of family after death. If the family feels the need for his or her continuing care, they can strengthen the soul's presence with offerings and prayer. Hawaiian families conduct ceremonies to transform the deceased into the body of the animal to whom the family is related. A fisherman of the shark family is guarded by his embodied relative. Children of the owl family can be led out of danger by the bird who appears to help them. Similarly, family and even friends can use body parts of the dead to create servant spirits, which lack the full personality of a family god but are obedient servants for limited tasks.

Polynesian spiritual practices are possible because souls are physical. At death, a soul exits the body from a tear duct and begins a tentative, instinctive journey into the uplands for a time and then proceeds along the path of the spirits to the place on each island where the souls jump off into the land of the dead. If a soul expert feels the person should not have died, he or she can find the soul, "snatch" it between cupped hands, reinsert it

under the big toe, and massage it up the body until the person revives. On the other hand, an enemy can capture the soul and destroy it, annihilating the deceased. Polynesians believe in life after death, but not necessarily immortality.

As in all aspects of Polynesian religion, human beings are seen as powerful and capable. They are not terrified and overpowered by phenomena of the dead. Inborn talent, trained sensitivity, and education enable them to handle gods and spirits as naturally as they do the winds and the waves. Indeed, Polynesian Christians, living in the same world as their ancestors, often supplement their new religion with such traditional beliefs and practices. The combinations they create are compelling and broadening. The Polynesian's understanding of family as a spiritual power, of deceased family members as continuing sources of love and care, of the closeness and communion of the living and the dead, and of the human being's capacity to manage death as well as life are a genuine contribution to the world.

Bibliography

Kamakau, Samuel M. Ka Po'e Kahiko: The People of Old. Honolulu: Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum.

Moyle, Richard. Fâgogo: Fables from Samoa in Samoan and English. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1981.

Orbell, Margaret. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mâori Myth and Legend. Canterbury: Canterbury University Press, 1995.

Pukui, Mary Kawena, E. W. Haertig, and Catherine A. Lee. Look to the Source. Honolulu: Hui Hânai, 1979.

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In treating all subjects, including death, Polynesian religions are based on experience rather than faith. Prominent among those experiences are encounters with many different types of gods and spirits. These include human beings who have died and assumed one of several possible forms. For instance, miscarried or aborted fetuses can be transmuted into vicious demons.

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How did the first inhabitants of Easter Island arrive? It is the most remote inhabited island on Earth. The coast of Chile lies 2,300 miles to the east, Tahiti 2,500 miles to the northwest, and the nearest island, with a total population of 54 people, is tiny Pitcairn, 1,400 miles to the west. The answer lies in the deeply rooted traditions of Polynesian culture.

A world of water

The people of the Pacific are intimately tied to the ocean. They sailed the sea hundreds of years before Europeans, using voyaging canoes crafted from island materials and stone tools. The Polynesians approached the open ocean with respect; indeed, the ocean was integrated naturally into Polynesian culture, as they came from small islands surrounded by vast ocean expanses. No other culture embraced the open sea so fully.

For the continental Europeans, on the other hand, the ocean was looked upon as a menacing world that only the bravest explorers ventured upon for long periods of time. And even these explorers felt at odds with the ocean upon which they traveled. One of Magellan's chroniclers described "a sea so vast the human mind can scarcely grasp it." To a Polynesian islander, the world is primarily aquatic, since the Pacific ocean covers more area than land in this region. The Pacific, in fact, covers one-third of the Earth's surface.

a learned art

In island culture, the double canoe and its navigator were integral to the survival of the people. As an island became overpopulated, navigators were sent out to sail uncharted seas to find undiscovered islands. For weeks, they would live aboard boats made from wood and lashings of braided fiber. Thousands of miles were traversed, without the aid of sextants or compasses. The ancient Polynesians navigated their canoes by the stars and other signs that came from the ocean and sky. Navigation was a precise science, a learned art that was passed on verbally from one navigator to another for countless generations.

In 1768, as he sailed from Tahiti, Captain Cook had an additional passenger on board his ship, a Tahitian navigator named Tupaia. Tupaia guided Cook 300 miles south to Rurutu, a small Polynesian island, proving he could navigate from his homeland to a distant island. Cook was amazed to find that Tupaia could always point in the exact direction in which Tahiti lay, without the use of the ship's charts. Sadly, Cook was never able to learn and document Tupaia's navigational techniques, for Tupaia, and many of Cook's crew, died of malaria in the Dutch East Indies. Unlike later visitors to the South Pacific, Cook understood that Polynesian navigators could guide canoes across the Pacific over great distances.

instruments of nature

But these navigational skills, along with the double canoe, disappeared with the emergence of Western technology, which mariners the world over came to rely on. In 1976, the Hokule'a', a replica Polynesian double canoe made by a team of Hawaiian canoeists, voyaged from Hawaii to Tahiti using the ancient navigational techniques of their ancestors. Ben Finney, a member of the team, explains their mission: "Since by the 1960s Polynesian voyaging canoes had disappeared and ways of navigating without instruments had largely been forgotten, those of us who objected to Heyerdahl's ...negative characterizations of Polynesian voyaging technology and skills ...concluded that we would have to reconstruct the canoes and ways of navigating, and then test them at sea, in order to get at the truth."

For the ancient Polynesians, finding Easter Island must have been like finding a needle in a haystack.

Using no instruments, the canoe team navigated as their ancestors did, by the stars. They had no maps, no sextants, no compasses, and they navigated by observing the ocean and sky, reading the stars and swells. The paths of stars and rhythms of the ocean guided them by night and the color of sky and the sun, the shapes of clouds, and the direction from which the swells were coming, guided them by day. Several days away from an island, they were able to determine the exact day of landfall. Swells would tell them that there was land ahead, and the surest telltale sign would be the presence of birds making flights out to sea seeking food. By sailing from Hawaii to Tahiti, Hokule'a's team was able to prove that it was possible for Polynesian peoples to migrate over thousands of miles from island to island.

Return of the Outrigger

With the success of this voyage came renewed interest in Old World navigation. More double canoes were built, and now several teams are attempting to be the first to reach Easter Island, using ancient navigational techniques. No one has navigated a raft or voyaging canoe from Polynesia to Easter Island since the early settlers arrived there in AD 400*.

For the ancient Polynesians, finding Easter Island, a small 64-square-mile speck in this vast ocean, must have been like finding a needle in a haystack; but the Polynesian community today is convinced their navigators intuitively discovered and settled this island. "At the backbone of the maritime tradition lies the outrigger canoe," explains archeologist and Easter Island specialist Jo Anne Van Tilburg, "the quintessential symbol of Polynesian mastery of the sea. The outrigger canoe is today part of every Polynesian island child's upbringing, except on Easter Island. There, the outrigger canoe was lost sometime in the mid-1800s." Van Tilburg has been instrumental in reintroducing three outrigger canoes to the island. The islanders' loss of their seafaring past, according to Van Tilburg, "took away the traditional link people had with the sea."

For Van Tilburg, the Polynesian canoe is a metaphor in her theories of how the Easter Islanders transported and erected their 15-ton moai. "It's not much different from erecting a mast on a very large canoe. It's a transfer of technology from one industry to another. The people who built these structures were both sailors and farmers, and they used their seafaring technology to help them in moving and erecting their moai....Erecting a mast on a ship or a statue on a platform requires similar abilities, skills, and tools."

*Editor's note: New studies since this article appeared in 2000 posit a later arrival for the first Easter Islanders, a smaller maximum population, and a more complex explanation for what transpired there. See, e.g.: Hunt, Terry. 2006. "Rethinking the Fall of Easter Island. 2006. American Scientist 94(5): 412.

This feature originally appeared on the site for the NOVA program Secrets of Easter Island.

Liesl Clark is web producer for NOVA.

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Polynesia's Genius Navigators - NOVA | PBS

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How did the first inhabitants of Easter Island arrive? It is the most remote inhabited island on Earth. The coast of Chile lies 2,300 miles to the east, Tahiti 2,500 miles to the northwest, and the nearest island, with a total population of 54 people, is tiny Pitcairn, 1,400 miles to the west.

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How did Polynesian wayfinders navigate the Pacific Ocean? - Alan Tamayose and Shantell De Silva

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Wayfinders : Polynesian History and Origin

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The Polynesians' primary voyaging craft was the double canoe made of two hulls connected by lashed crossbeams. The two hulls gave this craft stability and the capacity to carry heavy loads of migrating families and all their supplies and equipment, while a central platform laid over the crossbeams provided the needed working, living, and storage space.

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Polynesian sports are varied and often have their origins within the Ma'ohi culture. The most famous of them are the "va'a" (Polynesian canoe) and surfing, however other former disciplines have come through time and societal evolutions of The Islands Of Tahiti.

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Polynesians and in general Pacific islanders are renowned to be great athletes - defying Mothernature and its dangers. Polynesian sports are varied and often have their origins within the Ma'ohi culture. The most famous of them are the "va'a" (Polynesian canoe) and surfing, however other former disciplines have

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This article will give you an in-depth look into Polynesian Tattoo Art

What is Polynesian Tattoo Art?

The History of Polynesian Tattoo

The Process, Main Focus and Tradition

Designs, Symbols and Meanings

Source: The Polynesian Tattoo Handbook

The origins of Polynesian society

There is still debate over the definitive origins of Polynesian culture and that transfers also, to the notion of tattooing.

One thing that is certain is that the term Polynesian or Polynesia incorporates many tribes including Marquesans, Samoans, Niueans, Tongans, Cook Islanders, Hawaiians, Tahitians and Maori. All of these tribes are genetically linked to the indigenous peoples from parts of Southeast Asia.

Southeast Asia and in turn, Polynesia are sub-regions of Oceania, comprising of a large grouping of over 1000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean, within a triangle that encompasses New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island as it's corners.

The people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs.

However, Polynesian languages may actually vary slightly from each other, and in some cases they actually differ quite significantly. There are some words, which are basically the same throughout all Polynesian languages, reflecting the deepest core of all Polynesian cultures. Moana (ocean) and mana (spiritual force and energy) are two terms that transcend all Polynesian cultures.

These words are rather similar and this reflects how closely related Polynesian cultures are with the ocean, as they believe that the ocean guarantees life.

The Origins of Tattoo Art in Polynesia

Historically there was no writing in Polynesian culture so the Polynesian's used tattoo art that was full of distinctive signs to express their identity and personality. Tattoos would indicate status in a hierarchical society as well as sexual maturity, genealogy and ones rank within the society. Nearly everyone in ancient Polynesian society was tattooed.

The Polynesian islands that were first first visited were the Marquesas Islands, which were found by European explorers and the Spanish navigator, Alvaro de Mendana de Neira, in 1595. However, the European navigators showed little interest due to the lack of valuable resources.

Captain James Cook (as mentioned in our comprehensive guide to Maori tattooing) was the first navigator trying to explore the aforementioned Polynesian triangle.

In 1771, when James Cook first returned to Tahiti and New Zealand from his first voyage, the word "tattoo" appeared in Europe. He narrated the behaviours of the Polynesian people in his voyage, which he called tattaw. He also brought a Tahitian named Ma'i to Europe and since then tattoo started to become rapidly famous, predominently because of the tattoos of Ma'i.

Another legend is that European sailors liked the Polynesian tattoos so much that they spread extremely fast in Europe because the sailors emblazoned the tattoos on their own bodies.

The actual tradition of Polynesian tattooing existed more than 2000 years ago, however in the 18th century the Old Testament strictly banned the operation. Since it's renaissance in the 1980s, many lost arts were revived but it became very difficult to sterilise the wooden and bone tools that were used for the tattooing process so the Ministry of Health banned tattooing in French Polynesia in 1986.

The revival of the art and practice of tattooing, particularly in Tonga, in recent years is predominantly referred to as a result of the work of scholars, researchers, visual artists and tattoo artists.

Tonga and Samoa

It was in Tonga and Samoa that the Polynesian tattoo developed into a highly refined art. Tongan warriors were tattooed form the waist to the knees with a series of geometrical patterns, mostly consisting of repeated triangle motifs, bands and also areas of solid black.

Priests who had undergone a long period of training who followed strictly prescribed rituals and taboos that took place during the tattooing process. For the Tongan people, the tattoo carried profound social and cultural significance, as mentioned previously.

In ancient Samoa, tattooing also played a hugely important role in both reglious rituals and warfare. The tattoo artist held a hereditary and by the same vein, a very highly privileged position. He usually tattooed groups of six to eight (usually men) during a ceremony attended by friends and relatives. The Samoan warrior's tattoo began at the waist and extended to just below the knee.

However, it was not unusual for Samoan women to be tattoo too. But the images were limited to things such as a series of delicate flower-like patterns (usually geometrical), on the hands and lower parts of the body.

Around 200AD voyageurs from Samoa and Tonga settled in the area of Marquesas. Over a period of more than 1000 years one of the most complex Polynesian cultures evolved - Marquesan.

Marquesan Art

Marquesan art and architecture were highly developed and Marquesan tattoo designs, which often covered the whole body, were the most elaborate in Polynesia.

Tools of the trade

Although many years have passed, the tools and techniques of Polynesian tattooing have changed very little. For a very traditional design the skill of tattoo art was usually handed down through generations. Each tattoo artist, or tufaga, was said to have learned the craft over many years of serving as an apprentice.

The advent of Christianity in Tonga witnessed the loss of several indigenous practices such as the practice of tattooing. Although the art of tattooing was retained in the nation if Samoa, it was completely erased in Tonga.

In Samoa, the tradition of applying the tattoo by hand has been unbroken for over 2000 years. Tools and techniques have hardly differed whatsoever. The skill is often passed from father to son, each artist learning the art after many years of serving as an apprentice.

A young artist in training often spent hours at a time, or even days, tapping designs into sand or bark-cloth using a special tattooing comb or au. Honouring their highly revered tradition, Samoan tattoo artists made this tool from sharpened boars teeth fastened together with a portion of the turtle shell and to a wooden handle.

Pain

The permanent marks left on someone after they have been tattooed would forever remember and commemorate their endurance and dedication to cultural traditions. The pain was extreme and the risk of death by infection was a huge concern for many people. However, to shy away from tattooing was to risk being labeled a coward or a pala'ai and to then be hated and insulted by the rest of the tribe or clan. The men who could not endure the pain and abandoned their tattooing were left incomplete, wearing their mark of shame throughout their life.

There were few men who refused the traditional pe'a, the intricate tattoo that covered their body from mid-torso to the knees. The artist would use a mallet to tap the teeth of the ink-laden comb into the man's flesh, following only simple marks as guidelines.

A tattooing session typically lasted until dusk or until the men could no longer stand the pain and would resume the following day, unless the inflamed skin needed a few days to heal. The entire process could last up to three or even four months. Afterwards, the man's family would help him to celebrate, despite the pain, by throwing a party and the tufuga smashed a water vessel at his feet, marking the end of the painful ordeal.

The healing process

This process usually took months. The tattooed skin would have to be washed in salt water, to keep infection at bay and then the body area had to be massaged to keep out impurities. Family and friends would assist in the healing process because even extremely simple tasks e.g. walking and sitting, could irritate the inflamed skin and cause great pain. Within six months, the distinctive designs would begin to appear on their skin but it would take almost a year to completely heal.

Placement on the body

Placement on the body plays a very important role in Polynesian tattooing. There are a few elements that are related to specific meanings based on where they are placed. So in short, their placement has an influence on the meaning of a Polynesian tattoo.

Humans are said to be descendants or children of Rangi (Heaven) and Papa (Earth), which were said to once be united. Man's quest in Polynesian legend is to find that union again, so the body is seen as a link between Rangi and Papa. The upper part of the body is related to the spiritual world and heaven, whilst the lower part of the body is related to the world and to earth.

The placements of some elements on the body, such as genealogy tracks on the back of the arms, suggest that the back may be related to the past and the front to the future.

Gender-wise, left is usually associated with women and the right to men.

1. Head

The head is said to be the contact point to Rangi, and so is related to themes such as spirituality, knowledge, wisdom and intuition.

2. Higher trunk

This area is from just above the navel to the chest and is related to themes such as generosity, sincerity, honour and reconciliation. Some may have noticed that this area is placed directly between Rangi and Papa, in order to have harmony between them balance must exist in this area.

3. Lower trunk

This area goes from the thighs to the navel. This part of the body directly relates to life's energy, courage, procreation, independence and sexuality. In particular, thighs relate to strength and marriage. The stomach or mid area, is where mana originates form and the navel represents independence due to the symbolic meaning associated to the cutting of the umbilical cord.

Independence is a trait that is valued highly in Polynesian society (as in most others), however individualism is not. All people depending on the sea for sustenance know the important of sociality and socialising. Polynesian people built their culture around this. Family thus becomes a larger group of people that includes all relatives, friends and neighbours, all of which play an important role.

A famous word to define this larger family, comes from Hawaii, the word is 'Ohana which indicates the familiar group of people who cooperate in the growing, teaching and feeding of children.

4. Upper arms and shoulders

The shoulders and upper arms above the elbow are associated with strength and bravery and they relate to people such as warriors and chiefs. The Maori word kikopuku used to designate this part of the union of the words kiko (flesh, body) and puku (swollen). Puku as a prefix or suffix is also used as an intensifier of the word it qualifies, enforcing the idea of strong arms.

5. Lower arms and hands

From below the elbow, the same word is used to refer both to arm and hand. This part of the body relates to creativity, creation and making things.

6. Legs and feet

The same word is used to refer both to leg and foot. Legs and feet represent moving forward, transformation and progress. They are also related to separation and choice. The feet, being our contact with Papa, Mother Nature, are also related to concreteness and material matters.

Joints

Joints often represent union, contact. If we look at the body as a reflection of society, we can understand why joints, being the points where different bones meet, represent different degrees of relation between individuals: the farther from the head (the chief of the family) the greater the distance in kinship, or the lower the status. Ankles and wrists represent a tie and bracelets placed there often symbolise commitment. Knees are often related to chiefs (to kneel before them).
Side note:
Traditional positioning should not keep you from placing your tattoos on any part of the body you may feel appropriate for you: we believe a design should be meaningful to his owner before anyone else.

Polynesian images and motifs

1. Enata (singular)

Human figures, otherwise known as enata in Marquesan language, represent men, women and sometimes gods. They can be placed within a tattoo to represent people and their relations. If they are placed upside down then they can be used to represent defeated enemies. This is one example of the Enata in its singular form.

2. Enata (pattern)

Over-stylised enata joined together in a row of people holding hands form the motif called ani ata, which translates to "cloudy sky".
Polynesian languages and a row of enata in a semi-circular form often represent the sky as well as the ancestors guarding their descendants.

3. Shark teeth (simplified)

Shark teeth or niho mano deserve a space of their own. Sharks are one of the favourite forms that aumakua choose to appear to man. They represent protection, guidance and strength as well as fierocity however, they are also symbols of adaptability in many cultures. This is an example of simplified shark teeth.

4. Shark teeth (complex)

Below are stylisations of shark teeth, in their more complex form as they may be seen in a tattoo.

5. Spearhead

Another classic symbol that is used to represent the warrior nature is the spear. Spear-heads are very symbolic in relation to sharp items too and they can be used to represent the sting of some animals.

6. Spearhead (pattern)

Often, this is stylised as a row of spear-heads, below is one variant.

7. Ocean (simplified)

The ocean is a second home to Polynesian people and the place of rest when they leave for their last voyage. Coincidentally, turtles are said to join the departed guiding them to their destinations. So sometimes, the ocean can be used to represent death and the beyond. Since the ocean is the primary source of food, it is no wonder it impacts so much tradition and myth. All the creatures living in the ocean are associated with several meanings, usually mutated from their characteristic traits and habits. The ocean and the sea can be represented by waves. Here is the simplified version.

8. Ocean

The stylisations of the ocean can often represent ideas such as life, change and continuity through change. Waves can also be used to represent the world beyond or the place where the departed go and rest on their last voyage.

9. Tiki

One meaning of the word tiki is figure, so tiki is the name given to human-like figures that usually represent semi-gods as opposed to atua, who usually appear to men under the shape of animals such as lizards.

The tiki can also represent deified ancestors, priests and chiefs who became semi-gods after their passing. They symbolise protection, fertility and they serve as guardians.

By stylizing the figure over and over there has been a simplified version that has been reached, called the "brilliant eye" where the eyes, nostrils and ears appear to be the prominent elements.

Here is an example of a tiki face

10. Tiki eyes

Tiki figures can be portrayed in a front view (sometimes with their tongue stretched out as a symbol of defiance to enemies). Here is a close up of one of the most important elements of the tiki, the eyes.

11. Turtle

The turtle or honu is another important creature throughout all Polynesian cultures and has been associated with several meanings. The first being the fact that turtles symbolise health, fertility, longevity in life, foundation, peace and rest.

The word hono, meaning turtle in Marquesan language, has other meanings which encompass things such as joining and stitching together families and representing the idea of unity.

Contrary to what is sometimes believed, turtles drawn upwards do not imply that they are taking the soul of a dead person into the other world. To represent this, a human figured must be placed on or near the shell of the turtle.

12. Turtle (shell pattern)

Other patterns can be derived by the inlay of the shell, this is one example of a shell-stylisation...

13. Lizard

Lizards and geckos are often called mo'o or moko and they play an important role in Polynesian myth. Gods (atua) and minor spirits often appeared to men in the form of lizards and this may explain why the stylised element used to represent the lizard is very similar to the stylised symbol used to represent man.
Lizards are very powerful creatures who bring good luck, communicate between the humans and the gods and who can access the invisible world. On the other hand, they can also bring death and bad omens to people who are disrespectful.

14. Lizard (pattern)

This is a pattern or stylisation of the lizard symbol, and as mentioned above it does look rather similar to the human-form stylisation (enata).

15. Stingray

Stingray tattoos come in several variations and styles, the image can hold symbolic meanings. The stingray has the ability to hide in the underwater sands, mainly from sharks and is able to cover up with sand and lay still. Most sharks can sense prey in the sand based on movement but for the most part the stingray is able to hide and for this reason, it's image is classed as a symbol of protection. Other themes that go hand in hand with the sting-ray image are adaptation, gracefulness, peacefulness, danger, agility, speed and stealth.

We specialise in Polynesian and Maori Tattoo Artwork

If you'd like to see more of our polynesian work, head on over to our Polynesian Tattoo Gallery or contact us to talk about your ideas!

Source: The Polynesian Tattoo Handbook

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Polynesian Tattoo: History, Meanings and Traditional Designs

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This article will give you an in-depth look into Polynesian Tattoo Art What is Polynesian Tattoo Art? The History of Polynesian Tattoo The Process, Main Focus and Tradition Designs, Symbols and Meanings Source: The Polynesian Tattoo Handbook There is still debate over the definitive origins of Polynesian culture and that transfers also, to the notion of tattooing.

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Polynesian culture, the beliefs and practices of the indigenous peoples of the ethnogeographic group of Pacific islands known as Polynesia (from Greek poly 'many' and nēsoi 'islands'). Polynesia encompasses a huge triangular area of the east-central Pacific Ocean. The triangle has its apex at the Hawaiian Islands in the north and its base angles at New Zealand (Aotearoa) in the west and Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in the east. It also includes (from northwest to southeast) Tuvalu, Tokelau, Wallis and Futuna, Samoa (formerly Western Samoa), American Samoa, Tonga, Niue, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia ( Tahiti and the other Society Islands, the Marquesas Islands, the Austral Islands, and the Tuamotu Archipelago, including the Gambier Islands [formerly the Mangareva Islands]), and Pitcairn Island. At the turn of the 21st century, about 70 percent of the total population of Polynesia resided in Hawaii.

The physical environment of the Polynesian islands is not as favourable for human habitation as it might at first seem. It certainly presented difficulties when the ancestors of the Polynesians entered the area some 2,000 to 3,000 years ago, first settling on the western islands-Wallis and Futuna, Samoa, and Tonga-which were devoid of much that was needed for human habitation. As a result, early peoples had to take in a wide variety of subsistence items, including most of the useful plants and all of the domestic animals they required. The physical environment has continued to exert a marked influence on Polynesian culture.

Polynesian cultures have been radically altered by Western colonialism. European explorers navigated much of the area in the latter quarter of the 18th century, and the first missionaries arrived in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Britain annexed New Zealand through the Treaty of Waitangi (1840), but interethnic tension arose between the indigenous Māori. Other colonial powers that laid claim to various parts of Polynesia included France, Germany, New Zealand, the United States, and Chile.

Missionary influence on Polynesian peoples increased over time, and Christianity eventually became an integral part of the islanders' lives. In many areas Christianity was also influenced by local traditions and customs. Quite commonly, villages competed to build larger and more elaborate churches, and first-time visitors to Polynesia are often surprised at the intensity of the islanders' commitment to Christianity. Many Polynesians were recruited to proselytize other parts of the Pacific, particularly Melanesia.

After World War II, local sentiments for decolonization began to spread. Samoa became the first postcolonial Pacific nation when it gained sovereignty from New Zealand in 1962. It has a parliamentary system, but only traditional chiefs ( matai) may vote and run for election. Tuvalu also follows the parliamentary style of government. Three island groups-Tonga, Tahiti, and Hawaii-had traditionally been monarchies. This form of government survives only in Tonga, where a British-style parliament gives special status to traditional nobles. Most of the remaining island groups have gained some degree of independence from colonial rule.

Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is the anomaly of the region. The aboriginal population was so decimated by European-introduced diseases and by slavers in the 1860s that it almost became extinct. In 1888 the island was annexed by Chile; its people are now the only Pacific islanders controlled by a Latin American power. Little remains of Easter Island's original culture. The indigenous Polynesian language (also called Rapa Nui) survives, but most people also speak Spanish. About one-third of the island's small population is from Chile.

Contemporary Polynesia

Polynesia has loomed large in the Western imagination for more than 200 years. Idealized images were disseminated around the world from the time of first contact with Europeans: people in Europe avidly read the reports of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1771), Captain James Cook (1773), and other explorers and saw images made by the artists who accompanied them. These provided source material for published and widely circulated engravings. This fascination with an imagined "paradise" continued in the form of fiction-including such novels as Herman Melville's Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847) and Robert Louis Stevenson's A Footnote to History (1892) and In the South Seas (1896)-and visual art, particularly that of Paul Gauguin. Bred by these and other artists and by tourist iconography, musicals, and films, the notions of an almost blissfully carefree and easy way of life, devoid of harsh extremes of any type, played out on islands of great beauty and natural abundance, persisted into the 21st century in the popular imagination. Far from conforming to Western notions of paradise, traditional Polynesian cultures were in fact complex, highly specialized, and adapted to environments that could be quite hostile.

While Polynesia was never the paradise some Westerners supposed, the circumstances of contemporary life also reflect more than a century of colonial disruption to indigenous cultural traditions. Some of these disruptions have been quite severe. For example, French Polynesia was forever changed when it became a nuclear test site, a process begun in 1962 when France's former testing ground, Algeria, gained independence. The French government built testing facilities on two uninhabited atolls in the Tuamotu Archipelago: Mururoa and Fangataufa. Over the next three decades, 192 bombs were detonated at those facilities. The first series of bombs (1966-74) were exploded in the atmosphere and thereby created a large amount of radioactive fallout. Regional antinuclear protests eventually compelled the French to shift to underground detonation, in which explosions were contained in shafts that had been bored deep beneath the land surface of Moruroa Atoll and its lagoon. Although decreasing the risk of atmospheric contamination, the subterranean testing program has caused the atoll to sink several yards.

The nuclear-testing program also changed French Polynesia's economy and the distribution of its population considerably. It generated an artificial sense of affluence by bringing in thousands of military personnel, creating a myriad of jobs, and initiating an influx of funding with which to guarantee the region's loyalty and strategic services. Many French Polynesians left their villages for urban areas, causing the previous era's self-sufficient subsistence economy to shift to a wage-based system. While French Polynesia came to have one of the highest standards of living in the South Pacific, many people's livelihoods became intricately tied to the "nuclear economy," which was exceedingly dependent on a continued military presence. With the end of testing in 1996, the French Polynesian government sought ways to diversify the local economy, aided by several years of financial assistance from the French government. Tourism emerged as one of the islands' main economic activities. In addition, despite the pro-French messages conveyed by the educational system and the French-controlled media, an antinuclear and pro-independence movement emerged in the islands. Its activities became a major factor in France's decision to change French Polynesia's status from that of a territory to that of an overseas collectivity, which included greater autonomy for the islands.

French Polynesia is not the only area in which people have become increasingly urbanized. Towns such as Apia (Samoa), Pago Pago (American Samoa), and Nuku'alofa (Tonga) have attracted many people from rural areas. Many Polynesians have moved to New Zealand (especially Auckland) and the United States (especially Hawaii, California, Washington, and Oregon). By the early 21st century, more Samoans and Cook Islanders were living away from their original islands than on them.

Although colonial history and migration have instigated a great deal of cultural change, the indigenous peoples of this region are also making strong efforts to revive or maintain many of their customs and values. There has been an efflorescence of indigenous Polynesian literature since the 1960s, especially from Hawaii, New Zealand, Samoa, and Tonga. Although the earliest of these works often set indigenous peoples in direct opposition to the colonizers, more-recent literature grapples with the complex nature of colonial relationships and modern identities. Generally rooted in traditional culture, it reflects the continued importance of oral history, storytelling, and indigenous belief systems in the region ( see also Oceanic literature; New Zealand literature).

Fluency in Polynesian languages has been an area of focus since the 1970s, and many areas have immersion schools for preschool and older children. Programs in New Zealand and Hawaii, where traditional languages had essentially been lost, have been especially successful. Because of the immersion schools, the Māori and Hawaiian languages are now comparatively healthy. In 1987 the New Zealand government declared Māori an official language of that country and established the Māori Language Commission as part of that legislation. The Samoan, Tongan, and Tahitian languages were never lost, and thus are also fairly robust.

Festival activity, which has always been a significant part of Pacific culture, has provided a vehicle for expressing contemporary indigenous identities. The Festival of Pacific Arts, founded in 1972, has become a major venue for the perpetuation of the region's arts, music, and dance. With the goal of reviving what was in danger of being lost, the festival is held every four years, each time hosted by a different country. It has become an event that is both cultural and political and that serves to promote Pacific values. The Festival of Pacific Arts is complemented by other, more-local arts festivals, such as the annual Heiva in Tahiti, the annual Teuila Festival in Samoa, and the annual Merrie Monarch Hula Competition on the island of Hawaii.

Navigation over the open sea, often considered another art form, was almost lost but has been revived. In 1973 several people, all based in Hawaii, founded the Polynesian Voyaging Society in order to evaluate various theories of Polynesian seafaring and settlement. They reconstructed a double-hulled voyaging canoe in order to test both its seaworthiness and the efficacy of traditional (i.e., noninstrumental) navigation methods over the long ocean routes that Polynesians had once traveled. In 1975 the society launched the first such vessel, the Hokule'a, and in 1976 sailed it from Hawaii to Tahiti and back. They have continued to sail the Hokule'a as well as other canoes, such as the Hawai'iloa; the construction and sailing of these vessels serve to train students in the ancient arts of shipbuilding and navigation. Polynesians have applied the lessons learned from voyaging to cultural challenges they face today. For example, youths learn to listen carefully to elders, to learn by observing and doing, and to follow cultural rules, all of which have been useful in providing them with a sense of cultural identity.

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Polynesian culture | History, People, Religion, Traditions, & Facts

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Polynesian culture, the beliefs and practices of the indigenous peoples of the ethnogeographic group of Pacific islands known as Polynesia, which encompasses a huge triangular area of the east-central Pacific Ocean. In the early 2000s, about 70 percent of the total population of Polynesia resided in Hawaii.

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The allure of old Polynesia lingers among the Pacific island people who demonstrate their traditional arts and crafts and perform their lively songs and dances at the Polynesian Cultural Center.
As early as 1844, missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (popularly called the Mormons) were working among the Polynesians in Tahiti and surrounding islands.
Missionaries arrived in the Sandwich Islands (Hawai'i) in 1850. By 1865, the LDS Church had purchased the 6,000-acre plantation that encompasses all of Laie.

The LDS Temple in Laie - started in 1915 and dedicated on Thanksgiving Day 1919 - attracted more islanders from throughout the South Pacific. By the 1920s, LDS Church missionaries had carried their Christian teachings to all the major island groups of Polynesia, by living among the people and speaking their languages.

In 1921, Laie had become very cosmopolitan - so much so that David O. McKay, a young Church leader on a world tour of Church missions, was deeply stirred as he watched school children of many races pledging allegiance to the American flag. That incident is depicted today in a beautiful mosaic mural hanging above the entrance to the McKay Foyer, a BYU-Hawai'i building named in McKay's honor.

McKay envisioned that a school of higher learning would be built in the small community to go along with the recently completed Temple, making Laie the educational and spiritual center of the LDS Church in the Pacific. Beginning in 1955, under the direction of experienced contractors and craftsmen, "labor missionaries" built the school McKay had foreseen decades before, the Church College of Hawai'i. At the groundbreaking ceremony for the college, McKay predicted its students would literally influence millions of people in the years ahead. In 1974, Church College became a branch campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Today, BYU-Hawai'i is a four-year liberal arts school with about 2,400 undergraduate students. It is part of the LDS Church Educational System that includes BYU Provo and BYU-Idaho.

About the time of McKay's visit to Laie in 1921, Matthew Cowley was finishing his first round of missionary service in New Zealand. There, he developed a deep love for the Maori people and other Polynesians. In time, he also became another important LDS leader who was concerned with the erosion of traditional island cultures. In a speech Cowley delivered in Honolulu, he said he hoped "...to see the day when my Maori people down there in New Zealand will have a little village there at Laie with a beautiful carved house...the Tongans will have a village too, and the Tahitians and Samoans and all those islanders of the sea."

The potential of such a concept was well established in the late 1940s when the Church members in Laie started a hukilau - a fishing festival with a luau feast and Polynesian entertainment - as a fund-raising event. From the beginning, it proved immensely popular and provided the inspiration for the well-known Hukilau Song that begins: "Oh we're going to a hukilau...where the laulau is the kaukau at the big luau." Busloads of visitors drove to Laie throughout the 1950's; and by the end of that decade, Polynesian students at Church College of Hawai'i had started up Polynesian Panorama - a production of authentic South Pacific island songs and dances. They eventually played to standing-room-only crowds in Waikiki.

Cowley did not live to see his dream fulfilled but the vision had been planted in the hearts of others who nurtured and shaped it into reality. In early 1962, President McKay authorized construction of the Polynesian Cultural Center. He knew the completed project would provide much-needed and meaningful employment for the struggling students in then-rural Laie, as well as add an important dimension to their studies.

Over 100 "labor missionaries" again volunteered to help build the Polynesian Cultural Center's original 39 structures on a 12-acre site that had previously been planted in taro, the native root used to make the Hawaiian staple food poi. Skilled artisans and original materials from the South Pacific were imported to ensure the authenticity of the village houses.
The Polynesian Cultural Center opened to the public on Oct. 12, 1963.

In the earliest years, Saturday was the only night villagers at the Polynesian Cultural Center could draw a big enough crowd to fill the 600-seat amphitheater. Following the tremendous boom in Hawai'i tourism industry, however, and promotional appearances at the Hollywood Bowl and on TV's Ed Sullivan Show, the Center began to thrive. By the late 1960s, the amphitheater had been expanded to almost 1,300 seats. Villagers staged the evening show every night (except Sundays) and sometimes twice a night to accommodate peak-season crowds.

A major expansion in 1975 relocated and enlarged the Hawaiian village and added a Marquesan tohua or ceremonial compound. The following year a new amphitheater, which now seats almost 2,800 guests, was opened and several other buildings were added to the grounds, including the 1,000-seat Gateway Restaurant in 1979.

Many other additions followed in the 1980s: an 1850s-era Christian missionary compound (now called the Hawaiian Mission Settlement); a 70-foot bure kalou, or Fijian "spirit house" whose jutting roof dominates the northern end of the Center; the Migrations Museum; Yoshimura Store, a 1920's-style shop that serves island treats; and totally re-landscaped villages.

The 1990s saw a new wave of important PCC products, all intended to ensure that each return visit is a totally new experience: In 1995, the Center introduced a new and exciting night show, Horizons, Where the Sea Meets the Sky; a breathtaking IMAX™ film, The Living Sea; and Treasures of Polynesia, a $1.4 million shopping plaza featuring a large collection of authentic island merchandise. In 1996, the Center created the Ali'i Luau, which takes guests on a nostalgic trip through Polynesia with popular hapa-haole hula music while they enjoy traditional Hawaiian luau food and entertainment. The luau was awarded the Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau's "Keep It Hawai'i" Award for the most authentic Hawaiian luau. In 1997, the Center was also awarded the 'Oihana Maika'i Award by the State of Hawai'i for excellence in service and productivity.

The turn of the millennium has brought more changes to the Center including the addition of the IMAX™ film Dolphins, improvements to the front entrance, modifications to the retail sales areas to create a more authentic shopping experience and more. The Aloha Theater was renovated to handle special group functions of 1,000 or more. In response to visitor satisfaction surveys, cultural presentations were lengthened to an hour each to give the visitors more to experience. And, to give them more time to experience it all, the PCC introduced its "Free within Three" campaign that lets a guest purchase a ticket for a package and then come back again for two additional days to fit in all that they may have missed the first day. The year 2001 brought the start of many changes to the face of the Center, with more than one million dollars in improvements to the front entrance landscaping.

As the PCC celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2003, even more changes took place to enhance the beauty, culture and learning guests of all ages and backgrounds enjoy. A new front entrance now features mini-museum displays of artifacts from each of the islands represented at the Center, as well as hand-carved replicas of the various voyaging canoes used throughout Polynesia. An exhibit featuring moai statues of Rapa Nui or Easter Island - created onsite by artisans from Rapa Nui - has opened to round out representation of the Polynesian Triangle; the all-new Hale Aloha venue now houses the award-winning Ali'i Luau, as does the all-new Hale Kuai and Hale 'Ohana, with a fun show featuring songs and dances that take guests on a journey around the Hawaiian Islands and into the heart of Hawai'i's people.

The Polynesian Cultural Center has concentrated this spirit in a beautiful North Shore setting and consequently become world-renowned as a special place of enchantment, entertainment and education.
Imagine what Matthew Cowley would think if he could see how popular his "little villages" are today! He was right in assuming that the Aloha Spirit as practiced by the people of Polynesia would prove to be infectious and that their culture and traditions would endure if they were shared with others.

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The allure of old Polynesia lingers among the Pacific island people who demonstrate their traditional arts and crafts and perform their lively songs and dances at the Polynesian Cultural Center. As early as 1844, missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (popularly called the Mormons) were working among the Polynesians in Tahiti and surrounding islands.

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Blackbirding, the 19th- and early 20th-century practice of enslaving (often by force and deception) South Pacific islanders on the cotton and sugar plantations of Queensland, Australia (as well as those of the Fiji and Samoan islands). The kidnapped islanders were known collectively as Kanakas ( see Kanaka). Blackbirding was especially prevalent between 1847 and 1904. The Queensland government's first attempt to control it came only in 1868 with the Polynesian Labourers Act, which provided for the regulation of the treatment of Kanaka labourers-who theoretically worked of their own free will for a specified period-and the licensing of "recruiters." Because the Queensland government lacked constitutional power outside its own borders, the regulations could not be enforced; moreover, the fact that notorious and brutal blackbirders were able to retain their licenses seemed to indicate that the government was not seriously trying to end the practice. British government acts of the 1870s-especially the 1872 Pacific Islanders Protection Act (the Kidnapping Act)-provided for agents on British recruiting vessels, stricter licensing procedures, and patrol of British-controlled islands; these measures reduced the incidence of blackbirding by British subjects. Because of the continuing heavy demand for labour in Queensland, however, the practice continued to flourish. Blackbirding died out only in 1904 as a result of a law, enacted in 1901 by the Australian commonwealth, calling for the deportation of all Kanakas after 1906.

Letricia Dixon, Copy Editor.

Learn More in these related Britannica articles:

Kanaka, (Hawaiian: "Person," or "Man"), in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, any of the South Pacific islanders employed in Queensland, Australia, on sugar plantations or cattle stations or as servants in towns. The islanders were first introduced into Queensland in 1847 for employment on cotton plantations; in succeeding...

Forced labour, labour performed involuntarily and under duress, usually by relatively large groups of people. Forced labour differs from slavery in that it involves not the ownership of one person by another but rather merely the forced exploitation of that person's labour. Forced labour has e...

Pacific Islands, island geographic region of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises three ethnogeographic groupings-Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia-but conventionally excludes the neighbouring island continent of Australia, the Asia-related Indonesian, Philippine, and Japanese archipelagoes, and the...

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Blackbirding, the 19th- and early 20th-century practice of enslaving (often by force and deception) South Pacific islanders on the cotton and sugar plantations of Queensland, Australia (as well as those of the Fiji and Samoan islands). The kidnapped islanders were known collectively as Kanakas

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South Sea Islanders working in a Townsville cane field in 1907. CityLibraries Townsville/flickr, CC BY-SA

This article is the fourth in the Black Lives Matter Everywhere series, a collaboration between The Conversation, the Sydney Democracy Network and the Sydney Peace Foundation. To mark the awarding of the 2017 Sydney Peace Prize to the Black Lives Matter Global Network, the authors reflect on the roots of and responses to a movement that has re-ignited a global conversation about racism. The prize will be presented on November 2 (tickets here).
My grandfather was Moses Topay Enares. He was only 12 years old when he was coerced onto a ship, put in the hold and fed stodge, a flour-like substance, until he arrived in Queensland.

His wife, who recorded and retold his story, tells of him being taken from the beach off the island of Tanna, Vanuatu. Moses passed on the Northern Rivers in New South Wales in 1961. He never saw his family from Tanna again.

Black Lives Matter is an inspired world movement of consciousness that gives voice to the resilience and self-determination of people of colour in their continued fight for freedom and social justice. This fight is very relevant to Australian South Sea Islanders (ASSI). We are the descendants of some 62,500 people who were blackbirded from the 80 islands of Vanuatu and Solomons to NSW in 1847, with an influx to Queensland under the " indentured labour " trade.

Several words are used to depict the history of my people: indenture, slavery, kidnapping, blackbirding and Kanaka. But ASSI communities will tell any inquirer that we object to the use of the term "indenture" to describe what happened to our people when they were first brought to Australia. It's a weak word that does not express the real truth of the physical and cultural theft of human beings.

We identify as Sugar Slaves, and we are confident and firm about correcting the "official" versions of history.

ASSI-PJ

" Blackbirding " comes from the African slave trade and truly expresses the violence of what happened. There were 870 voyages back and forth to the islands that brought my people to Australia. Some were kidnapped, but it is also undeniable that our warriors chose to return more than once.

Nonetheless, the treatment of the Islanders was atrocious, exploitative and akin to slavery. When plantation owners went bankrupt, the workers were transferred as an asset with the sold property.

The grandfather of Gordon Johnson, a second-generation descendant of the blackbirding trade, was kidnapped from Malaita in the Solomon Islands and brought to Queensland to cut cane. Gordon says:

My grandfather was a respected chief, he had wives and a lot of land when he was stolen. His family thought he was dead for almost ten years. One day my grandfather got back to his island only to find that his right to land and his wives had all been taken. His family thought he was a ghost, so he was banished and travelled to Vanuatu in hope of starting a new life, but was blackbirded from Vanuatu back to Australia.

Gordon is now 67 and has found the courage to share his experience years after the trade was abolished. As a 13-year-old in 1963, he had no option but to work alongside his father in the cane fields on Howard Farm, Bundaberg.

The owner used to come round and check up on us while we were cutting and he used to flog me all over that field. He said I wasn't cuttin' proper. My father would have to sit back and watch 'cause he was warned that if he stepped in he would get a floggin' too and our family would be kicked off the farm. Ten of us lived in a one-room hut.

The full truth needs to be told

Thousands upon thousands of men, along with a small percentage of women and children, were blackbirded to work under the harshest of conditions in the pastoral, maritime and sugar industries.

Blackbirding occurred not only in the cane fields, but also in the shipping industry. South Sea Islanders worked as seafarers and deckhands across the many ports of this nation.

In 1847, more than a decade after slavery was officially abolished throughout the British Empire, politician and entrepreneur Benjamin Boyd began the illegal blackbirding of 119 Islanders to work on his whaling and pastoral ventures in Eden and the Riverina in NSW. For Boyd it was a business proposition - one that has been documented as a human disaster.

Today, the bitter truth about our sugar trade is commemorated by Australian South Sea Islanders in NSW marking 170 years since our forefathers escaped from Boyd and walked back to Sydney. By various means about half managed to be shipped home, which resulted in many Tanna men drowning in Sydney Harbour. The others died.

Earlier this year Stan Grant called for the inscription on Captain Cook's statue to reflect the truth.

In fact, the founding fathers of other townships, including entrepreneur Robert Towns (Townsville) and blackbirder John Mackay (Mackay), were part of a lucrative slave trade stretched to its fullest capacity for 40 years (1863-1903), regardless of illegalities and high death rates.

These cities are proud of their founders, but as with the case of Cook, a greater understanding and a broader discussion are needed. The full truth needs to be told.

Shireen Malamoo identifies as an Aboriginal/Kanak Woman. "Kanak" is Hawaiian for "bushman", a word the overseers used in a derogatory way for the Islanders. Shireen is the granddaughter of a Sugar Slave taken from the island of Tongoa in Vanuatu and a descendant of the Birrigubba traditional owners from Plantation Creek on the Burdekin River in Ayr, north Queensland. She says:

Slavery affects people of colour globally and Australia's version of slavery is based on the stealing of our African brothers and sisters across the Atlantic. In Australia, they attempt to hide the truth through the political manipulation of policy into the legal framework coined as "indentured labour". Our warriors were paid a pittance for their work and bonded to completion of an unknown three-year contract with no idea what they were in for, let alone knowing if they would live or die.

Some 15,000 Sugar Slaves lost their lives to common diseases. This toll equated to almost 30% of the trade. Despite authorities knowing about this, the trade flourished.

In 1901, the new Commonwealth government, as part of the White Australia Policy, ordered the deportation of the entire Islander community, who were now denigrated as "aliens". This was part of Australia's ethnic cleansing.

Many Islanders legally belonged as British subjects and should not have been unlawfully deported. The 1906 High Court judgment authorising their expulsion was a self-interested abuse of the rule of law that sought to "create" a White Australian population.

So, four decades later, the islands and families who had been traumatised by the kidnapping of their fathers, husbands and sons witnessed the return of these peoples, distressed and disorientated, having been deported en masse from Australia.

It was a travesty, with cases of cultural warfare and further displacement as the island societies they once knew were no more, and were now foreign to the returning labourers and their families.

Fighting for the right to live

Ken Canning is a Murri activist, writer and poet, whose people are from the Kunja Clan of the Bidjara Nation in southwest Queensland. He says:

While different groups are campaigning on many important issues, the same issues will become meaningless if we don't fight for the right to live.

My people did not just take the abuse they received. They were activists as well, making the most of the new situation into which they were forced. Historians call this agency, or taking control of your life even in adverse circumstances.

More recently, intrinsic agency by ASSI descendants is seen through our work in solidarity with Indigenous peoples fighting for the right to live full and fruitful lives as our basic human right.

My people have a complex identity that affirms the consequence of colonialism's truth and confronts the injustices inflicted upon two very different Black cultures - Indigenous Australian and immigrant Melanesian. We have produced several exceptional and stoic leaders, such as Faith Bandler, Bonita Mabo, Bob Bellear, Shireen Malamoo and Evelyn Scott.

Because of our history of forced migration to a foreign land and our marginalised cultural identity, ASSI descendants today must strive to restore our right to sovereignty.

Our ancestry is now mixed with Indigenous Australians and we support the call for respect and appreciation of the oldest living civilisation. But we also want to restore our connections with our islands of origin, and to ensure that future generations of our people in Australia are treated with dignity as citizens.

ASSI-PJ

As part of our advocacy work, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has included Australian South Sea Islanders in its statistical gathering. The 2016 Census recorded a 133% increase in participation from 2011, giving a demographic guesstimate of some 70,000 descendants nationally.

This joint government and community endeavour has led to Australian South Sea Islanders being given a place on many forms, including those used in hospitals and by Centrelink.

Despite these successes, ASSI communities continue to suffer a great decline due to a lack of defined policy for supportive state and national action. Especially needed are initiatives that inspire economic stability and broader community engagement in grassroots capacity-building programs. Our demographic remains marginalised, suffering the same disadvantage found in Indigenous Australia.

Queensland divides to conquer

On March 22 this year, the Australian government responded to the plight of ASSI by accepting the recommendations of a House of Representatives standing committee that they be reinstated as a specific target group identified under the Multicultural and Equity Policy.

The intention was to co-ordinate assistance by all three tiers of government. It was the most significant Commonwealth investigation into ASSI since Bandler persuaded Gough Whitlam to establish an inter-departmental committee in the 1970s.

Unfortunately, no-one bothered to tell the National ASSI Association Roundtable. We found out indirectly in late October.

Meanwhile, the Queensland government has already begun consultations with ASSI in the state, once more dividing to conquer. Lured by offers of local-level funding, regional ASSI organisations failed to work with the national body they inaugurated.

Does the Queensland government have good intentions? What are its real motivations? A senior government official was evasive when contacted.

Clive Moore, based on 40 years' involvement with the ASSI community and a deep knowledge of our history, commented:

The Queensland government once more is manipulating ASSI, dividing them, offering them scraps. There is also an election looming and they want to shore up marginal seats.

The government realises the likelihood of class action being taken over its disgraceful behaviour in the 19th century, when the state seized the wages of the 15,000 dead ASSI to pay for the administration of the Sugar Slave trade and ultimately the forced deportations in the 1900s.

In today's money the Queensland and Australian governments have misappropriated tens of millions of dollars, in the same way as Aboriginal wages were misappropriated. Of this Moore says:

Queensland's government is protecting itself, not helping the modern ASSI generations. It is one Australia-wide community, and working within state borders is a deliberate impediment and not what the Commonwealth is seeking.

Today Australia is home to some 350,000 Pacific Islanders, recent and historical, who are achieving a cultural renaissance through reconnection and kinship. But the battle is hard, with recent seemingly positive initiatives exposing the lack of communication between the government and our people, as well as the provincialism of the states and the wider impediments put in the way of justice.

Real justice is an opportunity for our nation's healing - and for a national action plan that sees community groups come to the table in truthful, meaningful and long-term dialogue with the federal and state governments of Australia.
You can read other articles in the series here.

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Australia's hidden history of slavery: the government divides to conquer

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This article is the fourth in the Black Lives Matter Everywhere series, a collaboration between The Conversation, the Sydney Democracy Network and the Sydney Peace Foundation. To mark the awarding of the 2017 Sydney Peace Prize to the Black Lives Matter Global Network, the authors reflect on the roots of and responses to a movement that has re-ignited a global conversation about racism.

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Easter Island - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com

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Find out more about the history of Easter Island, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

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White Society used them as labourers when needed and discarded them when no longer needed: they were coerced and expendable labour Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission 1992 Australian South

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The complicated history of surfing - Scott Laderman

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A LONG-STANDING mystery about how people migrated to remote regions of the Pacific, such as New Zealand and Easter Island, may have been solved.

"Our research shows - and this has always been a conundrum - why there was this burst of activity followed by what seems like a cessation of long-distance voyaging," says Professor Ian Goodwin.

His team at Macquarie University in Sydney revealed several windows around 800-1300 AD when it was easier to sail from the central Pacific, around Tonga and the Southern Cook Islands, to NZ and Easter Island. The discovery was made by reconstructing historic wind patterns and sea level pressure conditions over the last 1200 years.

Meanwhile, another team led by Dilys Johns at the University of Auckland, examined the remains of a canoe discovered in western NZ in late 2012 that was dated to around 1400 AD. This is the only confirmed pre-European contact canoe in Polynesia, and its sophistication suggests it was used for long voyages.

Polynesian expansion in the Pacific

These studies, published this week in the journal PNAS, have shed light on an enduring mystery. Polynesian expansion of the Pacific reached Samoa about 3,500 years ago, at which point archaeological evidence suggests a hiatus, with no further expansion south-east across the Pacific until around 1000 years ago.

Then, within the windows of opportunity revealed by Ian's team, Polynesians suddenly reached Easter Island, Hawaii and NZ before the large-scale migration ceased around 1300.

"The winds were favourable for Polynesian migration in this couple of hundred year period," Ian says.

The new data suggests the epic voyage could have been achieved in a couple of weeks during these climate windows, four times faster than during other periods with less favourable wind conditions - especially when travelling in the type of canoe examined by Dilys' team.

"It's a large, powerful, robust canoe that would've been capable of travelling long distances - a lot more sophisticated than the canoes documented on European arrival," she says. "The turtle carving on the canoe also points to Polynesians bringing their ideas to New Zealand, as turtles don't historically feature in Maori carvings."

Migration to New Zealand and Easter Island

Ian adds that the patterns of migration show how the Polynesian society was resilient to climate shifts, using wind conditions and canoe-building skills to colonise new lands that had more reliable rainfall.

"Exactly at the time this is occurring, the Vikings are spreading out across the north Atlantic, the Mayan civilization in Central America is collapsing because of intense drought, and there's societal upheaval happening right across the world due to climate changes," he says. "Certainly the Polynesians were adaptable to these conditions."

Ian says the research provides us with an insight into the future, as similar climatic patterns are predicted to recur in the next century.
Figure below shows possible routes of migration available during windows of favourable wind conditions identified by Professor Ian Goodwin and his team at Macquarie University in Sydney (Credit: PNAS).

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A LONG-STANDING mystery about how people migrated to remote regions of the Pacific, such as New Zealand and Easter Island, may have been solved. "Our research shows - and this has always been a conundrum - why there was this burst of activity followed by what seems like a cessation of long-distance voyaging," says Professor Ian Goodwin.