ETHOC 008937

ornement de proue de pirogue

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008937
‘au'au or pihao canoe prow ornament
French Polynesia, Marquesas Islands
Wood. H 23 cm
Before 1800
Long-term loan by Eugène Pittard in 1921; given by his son Jean-Jacques in 1966
MEG Inv. ETHOC 008937
Geolocate the object
This prow ornament was attached to the front of the canoe on special occasions by means of two holes on either side of the figure, and was believed to protect the sailors.
This piece is of exceptional quality and is considered one of the most original of the twenty-eight known specimens in collections the world over.

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Ressources

Multimedia

The art of navigation

The Pacific islands were explored and settled without navigation instruments, but with the help of sophisticated nautical technology based on the observation of natural phenomena: reading the sea, the sky, the winds and the land, interpreting their manifestations and memorising their variations. For the Pacific Islanders, the ocean was not empty, but full of signs to help them get their bearings and locate invisible lands. The ocean was not an obstacle, but a path linking the islands to one another.

In recent decades, there has been a strong upsurge of interest in the art of navigation, now seen as a way of reasserting identity and shared ancestral heritage.

Bibliograpy

  • FUERST, René. 1988. Navigateurs des mers du Sud. Catalogue d'exposition. Genève: Musée d'ethnographie., 134-135
  • Gunn, Michael. 2014. Atua: Sacred Gods from Polynesia. Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 132-135
  • Colombo Dougoud, Roberta. 2014. Les collections Océanie. In: Regards sur les collections. Genève: Musée d'ethnographie de Genève, 236-237

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