Carved wooden headrest (kali) with curved wooden crossbar, flat in section with solid wooden legs. [FB 28/11/2012]

Collection type: Object
Description: Carved wooden headrest (kali) with curved wooden crossbar, flat in section with solid wooden legs. [FB 28/11/2012]
Long description: Carved wooden headrest (kali) with curved wooden crossbar, flat in section with solid wooden legs. The headrest has a cylindrical bar on the underside with barrel shaped bosses at either end into which are socketed carved solid legs. [FB 28/11/2012]
Geographical reference: Fiji
Oceania > Melanesia > Fiji
Person: Field collector Arthur William Mahaffy; PRM source Stevens Auction Rooms
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1914
Date collected: Between 1896 and 1914
Acquisition information: Purchased: 01/11/1921
Materials and processes: Material Wood Plant, Process Carved
Dimensions: Length: max 417 mm, Height: max 160 mm approx, Width: max 128 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1921.87.4
Research and responses: This object was examined on the 29/30th November 2012 by Lucie Carreau as part of the work of the AHRC-funded project 'Fijian Art: Political Power, Sacred Value, Social Transformation and Collecting Since the 18th Century' (2011-2014). Her notes read: "The type of legs, massiveness of the legs and method of attachment of the bar and legs are not characteristic of Fijian craftsmanship." This headrest perplexed the group looking at it on Lucie's visit, Any Mills, Faye Belsey and Jeremy Coote as it does not look Fijian. Jeremy Coote speculated as to whether it could have been assembled from parts of something else, the join of the legs looks European so perhaps it was formally part of a boat or a colonial piece of furniture. [FB 30/11/2012]
Arthur William Mahaffy (1869-1919) was a colonial officer who served in the Pacific from 1896 to 1914 (see Biographies database). [JC 15 7 2005]
See R. Ewins, Fijian Artefacts: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery collection' Australia 1982: p.63: "Virtually every early visitor who wrote of thier experiences in Fiji mentions the curious headrest (Kali) of wood and/or bamboo. The general comment is that these were employed to preserve the often incredibly complicated hairstyles which were affected, and and this may well be true. Certainly without kali the hours spent preparing such coiffures would have been futile, and in this sense they could be considered to have engendered the mode. However, they were used in other parts of the pacific where such a 'hair fetish' does not seem to have been in vogue, and to this day in many vale levu (meeting houses) one will find improvised forms of the kali. I have very recently seen not only old people but quite young men in remote villages choose these wooden forms in preference to pillows, and pass the night on them. They were fairly standard in design - a cross bar of wood (either flat, curved or cylindrical) or of bamboo with either two flat (triangulate, or curved sided) legs, one at each end, or more commonly four short legs, square or cylindrical, generally tapered and often with small square or circular 'feet'. These feet were basically an inverted U-shaped piece of timber, recessed or flattened on the curve to accommodate the cross-piece (which was bound to it with sennit), and often presenting, in the end result, a very comical 'bow-legged' appearance. The kali were sometimes delicately inlaid with whale ivory (probably by Tongan craftsmen) and a chief's kali, like his hair or any other part of his head, might not be touched other than with special dispensation. If legs were omitted, the low form was called i lokoloko, and used by sick people - this word has been used for European stuffed pillows.
Roth indicates that the kali was reserved for chiefly use, and this could relate to more ornate coiffure affected by chiefs, or it could relate to the mana (spiritual power) which I have been told was believed by Polynesians to surround the head of chiefly people like an 'aura'. This was given as the reason the head was tabu, and if it is true could be a deeper reason for keeping the head of the ground.
The kali is placed under the neck, rather than the head, at the base of the skull or, if sleeping on the side, just above the angle of the jaw. Today a node of bamboo or block of wood (as high as 20cm, on occasion!) is generally all that is used (even Sunshine milk tins have enjoyed a recent vogue!), though I saw one in Nadroumai, Nadroga Province, made of packing-case wood and with large nails under it. The beautifully carved vesi items are apparently not made except as replicas for sale." [FB 27/11/2012]

Search terms: Furniture Dwelling, Headrest