IDNO

P.99981.VH

Description

Studio photograph of Nabukatavatava and another chief of the Koroqaqa. See P.87204. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003]

Studio portrait of two untamed “Kai Colo” or highlanders of the “Koro qaqa [Nakoroqaqa?] tribe” in the interior of Vitilevu, seated on chairs, with the bases of a pair of photographer’s clamps visible on the floor behind them. The man on the left is Nabukatavatava - see P.87203. for details - in this picture he has shifted his imilamila head-scratching needle from beside his right cheek-bone to directly above his forehead. His companion at right has a similarly massive and flamboyant pre-Christian hairstyle. At his throat is a doubled trade bead necklace, black beads above white, with a throat pendant with dangling beaded tails. The lanyard worn round his neck has a cord attached to something that is tucked beneath his waistband, possibly an ikalu dwarf coconut-shell whistle, or a set of panpipes. The fan he holds in his hands is an iirimasei or iirisakiki, made from a leaf of the niumasei fan-palm, Pritchardia pacifica, and borne by chiefs and priests as a symbol of rank and as a sunshade. Both men appear to be wearing their malo in the vakasulu fashion - wrapped round their waists as isulu kilts rather than passed between their legs and fastened round their waists as loincloth - perhaps in polite or self-conscious deference to being in Christian Levuka.
Extra fernery and foliage has been added to the backdrop through montaging. See P.99981.VH and P.99917.VH for the same added backdrop.
Early 1870s. [Fergus Clunie, 26/7/2003]

Physical Condition: The portrait of the two men appears to have been masked out and replaced with a background of foliage. Compare with P.87204. and P.109436., which have plain white backdrops. Print mounted onto card. [JD 27/1/2012]

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; Ovalau Island; Levuka

Cultural Affliation

Kai Colo

Named Person

Nabukatavatava (Na Buka Tavatava)

Photographer

Dufty Brothers, Levuka (Dufty, Francis Herbert)

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1870 - 1875

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.

Publication: Duplicates of this photograph are on the websites ‘www.pictureaustralia.org’ and ‘www.nla.gov.au/catalogue/pictures/’
‘www.fijimuseum.org.fj/fm-glassplatenegs.htm’. [AN 2/7/2003]

Publication: A duplicate carte-de-visit (without added backdrop) is held at the Fiji Museum, with the following information:
“Fiji Hill Tribe warriors with wigs (ulumate) photographed at the Dufty Studio in Suva. Dufty Collection, circa 1890.”
[Source: www.fijimuseum.org.fj/online_exibitions_glassplate_negatives.html, JD 10/3/2012]

Publication: This image is also held at the National Library of Australia, reference nla.pic-an10975065-12, with the following information:
Creator: Dufty, Francis H., 1846-1910.
Title: Mountaineers from inland Viti Levu (Kai Colo people) [picture] / F.H. Dufty.
Date: between 1870 and 1879.
Extent: 1 photograph : carte de visite ; 8.6 x 5.5 cm.
Context: Part of Dufty, Francis H., 1846-1910. Panorama of Levuka, Fiji, and portraits [picture]
Series: Panorama of Levuka, Fiji, and portraits.
Summary: The two men are wearing wigs of human hair.--Information provided by Dr. R. Ewins; RO8/102782.
Notes: Mounted with a montage of 5 albumen prints forming a panorama, and 11 other carte-de-visite portraits of Fijian and Tongan Chiefs and people.
[Source: www.nla.gov.au, JD 9/3/2012]

Photographer: This print was provisionally attributed to “?Dufty Brothers, Levuka”, but a related print is published on the National Library of Australia website with the attribution to Francis Dufty. The same iirimasei chief’s or priest’s fan, made from a single leaf with regular spacing and spaced fringing, only appears in Dufty’s early photographs where the studio has been decorated with foliage. This configuration of studio props appears to be used by Dufty between circa 1870 - 1875. The Photographer, Place and Date fields have been amended accordingly. [JD 9/3/2012]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Fund. [A. Nadin, 13/10/2003]