IDNO

P.99995.VH

Description

Kai Colo chief. See P.4116.ACH1, P.87330.VH, P.87318.VH, P.99978.VH, P.99979.VH and P.99984.VH. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003]

Cropped studio portrait to show only the central untamed “big head” Kai Colo or Viti Levu highlander wearing a malo loincloth, and with his hairdressed in a traditional style that has yet, in his case, to be censored by the Wesleyans. The man wears a white shell necklace and a civa breast-plate, the ornamental strings of which are studded with white shells or shell beads, and qato or lavei bracelets, cut from the sici or trochus shell, above the elbow. The man holding a club.
Circa 1869-1871. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003, from record P.4116.ACH1, updated JD 5/11/2011]

Physical Condition: Print mounted onto card.

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; Ovalau Island; Levuka

Cultural Affliation

Kai Colo

Named Person

Photographer

Dufty Brothers, Levuka

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1869 - 1871

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: Uncropped image published in ‘The Fiji Journals of Baron Anatole Von Hugel 1875 - 1877’, edited by Jane Roth and Steven Hooper (1990), plate 36, page 250. [Alex Nadin, 12/02/2003]

Publication: A duplicate of this photograph (uncropped) is on the website ‘www.justpacific.com’ in the section concerning the photographs of the Dufty Brothers. [Alex Nadin, 12/02/2003]

Publication: A duplicate of this photograph (uncropped) is on Rod Ewins’ internet site www.justpacific.com:
“Big head” mountain men (kai colo), wearing wigs of human hair (ulumate). These warriors were justifiaby feared by their coastal neighbours, who retaliated by stigmatising their name to mean “bushwhackers”. The men pictured here wear only malo loincloths. The seated men wear pigs’ tusks (bati ni vuaka). The standing man wears a civa pearl-shell and holds a rootstock club with a fibre-bound handle (waka vividrasa). (See Ewins, 1982 pp.34-36).” [Alex Nadin, 12/02/2003]

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