IDNO

P.99897.VH

Description

F.H. Dufty studio portrait of “Sukuisa, Mbau” = Sakiusa(?), Bau.
A Fijian man dressed in the Christian warrior dress of the mid 1870s, in which the groin area of the old malo loincloth was modestly screened by a liku - in this case a likusausauwai - overskirt overskirt, but the waistband of the malo was girded high up under the ribs in the challenging malowala fashion. He has macerated, striped and frazzled coconut or pandanus leaf streamers in his hair and a batinivuaka boar tusk pendant at his throat. Across his right shoulder he wears the iwabale shoulder sash of a chief, in this case of fringed white barkcloth, and wears a similar waist sash. The muscles of his arms above the elbow and his legs below the knee are braced by fringed vesasausauwai wrappings.
Circa 1876. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003]

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; Ovalau Island; Levuka; Bau

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Sukuisa (Ratu ?Sakiusa)

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.99726.VH to P.100050.VH were in the belted folder now numbered C539/3/. 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.

Photographer: This image is recognisable as Dufty’s Levuka studio through the painted studio backdrop to represent a view out a window with shutters (note the knob added to the shutter that casts a shadow). This appears to be a feature of Dufty’s studio throughout the 1870s, although the idealised landscape ‘view’ changes around 1875-1876. The Photographer, Date, and Place fields have been amended accordingly. [JD 13/3/2012]

Related Image: This commercial photograph appears more than once in the MAA Collections. There is no original negative. [JD 17/1/2012]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Fund. [A. Nadin, 16/9/2003]