Sacred Power and Chiefly Headdresses in Sāmoa, Tonga, and Fiji

This research is invested in recovering and recuperating the indigenous knowledge and visually encoded meanings associated with chiefly headdresses in the Pacific, using a form of analysis that is centred on themes of personhood, lineage, and materiality. These themes are woven in throughout the thesis using the ‘Afa Fili Tolu metaphor and framework and represent a crucial aspect of reconstituting (from an indigenous perspective) the cultural bodies of knowledge that surround each of the headdress forms. In the Pacific, body adornment practices have always been steeped in spiritual and customary belief systems that situate adornment as an important medium for containing, expressing, and conveying mana, or power and authority. In no context is this more evident than in the adornment of chiefly bodies, and within this category, headdresses can be singled out as one of the most dynamic and symbolic material expressions of power for the chiefs who wore them. The main aim of this thesis is to understand how chiefly headdresses are conceptualized, perceived, and given meaning across time with a particular focus on Sāmoa, Tonga and Fiji. More specifically, it aims to provide an analysis of how their symbolism and materiality reflect and embody notions of chiefly power and authority, through the examination of three unique examples: the Sāmoan Tuiga, Tongan Palā Tavake, and Fijian i Sala Vuti ni Manumanu. By treating these examples as case studies, this thesis demonstrates a theoretical approach to decolonizing knowledge and art historical understandings of head adornment practices in these areas, by privileging indigenous epistemologies and genealogies. By reanimating these chiefly headdresses, their relationship to their wearers and to indigenous notions of power and authority, this research highlights decolonizing and re-indigenizing research methods within art historical and museological discourses focusing on Pacific adornment. Furthermore, it demonstrates this approach in practice, using it as a means of mapping significant developmental and historical shifts in the way chiefly headdresses were symbolically viewed and utilized by their wearers.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art History

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Tu‘inukuafe, Talei

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Vercoe, Caroline

• Chiefly headdresses
• head adornment
• body adornment
• Polynesia
• Pacific
• indigenous
• power and authority
• mana and tapu

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/71821

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/71821