IDNO

P.99823.VH

Description

F.H. Dufty photograph of a chief’s house at Draiba, a little south of Levuka and Nasova on the east coast of Ovalau. The house is seated upon a stone-faced yavu or mound with a stone faced ramp leading up to a central doorway, which is flanked by another door to the left of it, and to the right, by a window that has been framed and silled in the European way. The ends of the ridge-pole have, as usual, been capped by projecting cones sculpted from the butts of balabala or treefern (Cyathea lunulata) trees, and the walls are covered by makita (Parinari laurina) leaf thatching. An old chief is sitting in front of the central doorway flanked to his right by several young men who have donned white barkcloth waist sashes for the occasion, one of them sitting with a gun across his knees. Charles Eyre, clerk to the Commissioner of Lands, is sitting on a box or chair in the doorway. To the left of the old chief sits a younger one with his hair enwrapped in a smoked barkcloth or masikuvui headband and wearing a qato or trochus shell bracelet on his left forearm. A youth sits before him on the ramp, dressed up with an iwabale shoulder sash and waistsash, and holding a club. Charles Mitchell, the Commissioner of Lands, who was based at Draiba, sits off to the right.
Circa 1876.
See P.99824.VH, P.99812.VH and P,99813.VH. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003]

Physical Condition: Print mounted onto card.

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; East Ovalau Island; Draiba

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Charles Eyre (Charlie); Charles Mitchell

Photographer

Dufty, Francis Herbert (Dufty Brothers, Levuka)

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1876

Collection Name

von Hügel Collection

Source

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Format

Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.99759.VH to P.99825.VH were in the belted folder now numbered C539/2/. This was formerly kept in paper archive Large Box G; VH1/4/5. It has now been transferred to the photo archive. The lists describing the contents of this box have been returned to the Paper Archive.

Related Image: This print or negative appears to be a unique image within the MAA Photograph Collections. [JD 12/1/2012]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Fund. [A. Nadin, 9/9/2003]