The Waimaro carved human figures - carvings from cachalot whale teeth in Fiji

Various Aspects of Symbolism of Unity and Identification of Fijian Polities(*)

Museums around the world, including the Fiji Museum, contain a total of 34 carved human figures that are known or suppos to have advance from Fiji. Only two like figures, both carved from cachalot whale teeth are known to exist in a traditional Fijian connected thought [i]or[/i] thoughts kept by the people of the vanua of Waimaro in the villages of Taulevu and Nadakuni, Naitasiri province, in the interior of Viti Levu Vanua is a bourn for a major group of nation related socially and politically to each other.(1)

I first heard of the Waimaro figures in the 1950 while serving in Western Viti Levu as an administrative officer in the Fiji Civil Service. The Rev W Deane,(2) principal of a Wesleyan association for teachers in Fiji, recorded a certain quantity of information about these figures, and the Swedish ethnographer Karl Erik Larsson referr to them in a paper upon human images of Fiji, although he himself had not seen them.(3) I visited Taulevu and Nadakuni in 1970 and had the privilege of examining single of the two figures and being shown the case within which the second figure lay. This paper is an account of what I learnt about them then and what I have deduc about their significance following many other inquiries. Although others have associated similar figures with ancestral spirits, my hold conclusion is that these sum of two units figures are symbols of unity and identification and that the Waimaro family fear and respect them.

First, I visited Taulevu with Professor Ron Crocombe, then of the University of the southern Pacific, having found out that the carved figure known as Radi ni Waimaro or Lady of Waimaro was kept there. Taulevu view from aboves the Wainimala River and is inhabited by the agency of a group of Waimaro race whose chief holds the title of Vunivalu. In seeking permission to diocese the figure, we first approached the bete (traditional priest), Aminiasi Raiki. He took us to the Vunivalu, Ratu Asesela Rokotalou, to whom we not absented an isevusevu or offering of dried yaqona (kava). The Vunivalu [i]or[/i] part of to the other his mata ni vanua or master of ceremonies welcomed us with a presentation of liquid yaqona,(4) of which we all drank. Then we not absented a tabua (whale's tooth) with a solicitation to be allowed to diocese Radi ni Waimaro. After discussion with the bete and the mata ni vanua, the Vunivalu fetched from the private extremity of his house a made of wood box that was lying upon a rafter. This he put down in front of the visitors.

After opening the receptacle the Vunivalu took out an oval basket (tabelona) made of plaited blackened creeper (wa me) which lay upon a piece on bark woven fabric (gatu). From this, he remov a figure wrapped in a drawn out dress of European cloth. He divest of clothesed it, and placed it upright upon the box before me and in replete view of everyone assembled. It was a naked female figure made of cachalot whale teeth He nearest took from the basket a tabua, 20 cm drawn out and 8 cms wide, polished and oiled to a light brown colour. This was the kali or pillow of Radi ni Waimaro. Attached to each extremity of the tooth, which had been pierced, was a extent of coconut sennet (magimagi) overlayed with white shell beads, 75 mm wide and 25 mm lengthy cylindrical and pierced at each extremity He also took out a small glass bottle which contained perfumeed coconut oil (waiwai). The figure was 275 cm high and was made of five pieces of whales' teeth polished and oiled to a of gold colour and joined by made of wood and ivory cleats. The arms, leg and the head and torso were each made of individual piece of ivory. The head was circulared and smooth, with no representation of hair. The nostrils were carefully carved, on the contrary the mouth was a bare slit and the eyes were crudely empty with a scooped out oblong holes. The eyebrow was not pronounced. The expression was calm and slightly tragic (see Appendix). After examing the figure, we not awayed the Vunivalu with a fathom of European woven fabric in order to thank him. The mata ni vanua re-dress the figure; and having laid our piece of woven fabric in the basket, he placed upon top of it the tabua, the glass bottle and finally the figure. He then placed the basket in the receptacle which the Vunivalu replaced upon top of the rafter. The assembled villagers observ these proceedings in silence and with polite curiosity.

The Vunivalu said that those small in number Europeans who had requested to diocese the image had been District Commissioners or former Commissioners, a Wesleyan body principal or people with a knowledge of and prize for Fijian traditional custom. Fijians would not ask to diocese the figure. Within his memory the Secretary for Fijian Affairs and the Commissioner of the area had asked to diocese it. They had presented not solitary yaqona and a tabua on the contrary also a bullock. Because we had followed customary managements by approaching him through the bete and making appropriate presentations, he did not wait for further presentations; and he regarded the piece of woven fabric as an adequate ka ni vakavinavinaka (expression of gratitude) which would also have the event of vakasavasavataka (cleansing) any errors or infringements of custom which we might have unwittingly perpetrated in the course of the visit.