1955.10.12

Collection type

Object

Description

Paddle club, culacula, with inlaid bone pieces on broad blade. [FB 21/02/2012]

Long description

Paddle club, culacula, with inlaid bone pieces on broad blade. The club is made from a dark wood. The blade is broad with vertical strengthening bar across the bottom of the blade extending ti the tips of the 'wings'. There is a less pronounced raised rib running the length of the blade. The handle is plain with flanged flat butt end. The blade has serrated edges at the wings and is inlaid with rectangular pieces of whale bone? in four sets of pairs, six pieces are missing. 'FIJI ISLANDS' has been painted across the centre of the blade on one side in white paint. The surface of the club has a polished/varnished look. [FB 21/02/2012]

Geographical reference

Fiji

Oceania > Melanesia > Fiji

Person

Field collector Unknown Collector

PRM source Irene Marguerite Beasley

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1939

Date collected

By 1939

Acquisition information

Donated: 1955

Materials and processes

Material Wood Plant, Material Pigment, Material Whale Bone Animal, Process Carved, Process Inlaid, Process Painted, Process Polished

Dimensions

Width: max 258 mm, Length: max 1098 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1955.10.12 Other numbers: Beasley no. 2119

Research and responses

Paddle club. See F Clunie 'Fijian Weapons and Warfare' 1977 Fiji Museum, Suva, Bulletin of the Fiji Museum no.2 and R. Ewins, Fijian Artefacts: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery collection' Australia 1982: p.44 "Paddle Clubs - Culacula and Kinikini. These broad-bladed clubs were of two types, war clubs and ceremonial. They are said to be possibly Tongan or Samoan in origin but some of the oldest surviving Fijian clubs are of the Culacula type. The war-clubs were used like broadswords, the sharp edges on the very hard wood being sufficient to snap, if not cut through bone. The ornately decorated ceremonial clubs were often excessively broad, almost fan-like, and were exclusive to chiefs and priests. They were handed down as heirlooms, and long use has often worn the carved designs almost away from the handle., even the blades in some cases. They were probably seldom used to strike with, being so thin in the blade that they would break easily - though not, it must be admitted, before doing very considerable damage..." [FB 14/02/2012]

See Mills, Andy, 2009, 'Akau Tau: Contextualising Tongan war-clubs' in Journal of the Polynesian Society, 118 (1), pp. 7-45 for a discussion of this type of club. The culacula and kinikini can be very similar in appearance, a key difference that can help in the correct identification being the shape of the ridge across the blade, which Mills describes on page 30 as follows: 'The straight-ridged culacula' and 'the curve-ridged or ridge-less kinikini.' [ZM 10/8/2016]

Search terms: Weapon, Ritual and Ceremonial, Status, Club, Status Object