IDNO

P.103551.VH

Description

Full length seated portrait of Ratu Seru Cakobau, the then Vunivalu of Bau and Tui Viti, seated in a chair with his walking stick. He wears a gatu barkcloth in the vakatoga or Tongan fashion, folded high up under his chest and girded by a waist sash. The chair is covered with a second piece of barkcloth with a fringe, and a woven mat is used as the floor. White material? has been hung in the background to create a temporary studio. [JD 26/3/2008, updated JD 26/4/2012]

Physical Condition: Faded, yellowing, support board torn. [JD 26/3/2008]

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji

Cultural Affliation

Fijian

Named Person

Ratu Seru Cakobau, Vuniivalu of Bau, Tui Viti (formerly spelt as Thakombau)

Photographer

Stewart (Colonel, R.E.)

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

1876

Collection Name

Von Hugel Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Biographical Information: ‘Thakombau, ex-king of Fiji’, also known as Ratu Seru Cakobau, Vuniivalu of Bau, Tui Viti, chief of Fiji 1871 - 1874, b.1817 d.1883, accepted Christianaity 1854 and ended cannibalism, instrumental in ceding Fiji to Britain in 1874] [Source: University of Southern California, Mission Photography Archive, http://digarc.usc.edu/impa/controller/view/impa-m2531.html, JD 26/3/2008]

Publication: The same image was published in Brewster, A.B., 1937, "King of the Cannibal Isles" (London, Robert Hale & Company) with the following information:
"King Thakombau, 1876, and Autograph" Frontispiece.
Photo by late Colonel Stewart, R.E.
Addition information provided by Just Pacific reads:
“Cakobau is wearing a large barkcloth skirt, apparently from the size and design a solofua (normally a bedcover or blanket) from Lau. He rests his hands on his chief's staff or matakilagi. The autograph is "CakobauR" [Cakobau Rex], the title he adopted during the Viti Government of 1871-4. Some European settlers had first crowned him King of Bau in May 1867, but even they never recognised his sovereign power over themselves. Then in June 1871 he was proclaimed King of Fiji, this time by a small group of European associates, and over the protests of many of the European population. Though he finally achieved fairly wide acceptance of this status, his government was not a success and by September 1874, Cakobau was pleased to agree to cede Fiji to Britain. As he put it then, "If matters remain as they are, Fiji will become like a piece of driftwood on the sea, and be picked up by the first passer-by. The whites who have come to Fiji are a bad lot. They are mere stalkers on the beach. … Of one thing I am assured, that if we do not cede Fiji, the white stalkers on the beach, the cormorants, will open their maws and swallow us."
[Source: Just Pacific, www.justpacific.com/fiji/fijiphotos/books/cannibalIsles/index.html?PHPSESSID=a8d1ad215502d4e5792958a363c82861]

Publication: Image published in 'Thomas, Nicholas. 'The Islanders : The Pacific in the Age of Empire'. (New Haven, Conn. ; London: Yale UP, 2010), p.241, and captioned: "Portrait of Cakobau." [JD 02/12/2019]

Source: This photograph is part of a collection of 32 prints and one album that was loaned to Tim Bayliss-Smith in the 1980s by the Museum before the photographs were accessioned as part of the Photograph Collections. Tim Bayliss-Smith returned the prints to the Museum for accessioning on 10 March 2008. [Jocelyne Dudding 25/3/2008]

Related Image: This print or negative appears to be the original image at MAA from which the associated photographs have been derived from. [JD 19/12/2011]