1922.43.5

Collection type

Object

Description

Headrest (kali ni bitu) made from a length of bamboo with two wooden feet attached to the bamboo with clumps of resin. [FB 27/11/2012]

Long description

Headrest made from a length of bamboo with two wooden feet attached to the bamboo with clumps of resin. The bamboo crossbar is inscribed with a dotted pattern with the letters SAMU.. and NOGO as well as other incised shapes and patterns. The feet are single flat pieces, solid but u-shaped in outline. [FB 27/11/2012]

Geographical reference

Fiji

Oceania > Melanesia > Fiji

Person

Field collector James Edward Blomfield

PRM source Jean Mary Blomfield

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1888

Date collected

July 1888

Acquisition information

Donated: 1922

Materials and processes

Material Bamboo Plant, Material Wood Plant, Material Resin Plant, Process Carved, Process Incised

Dimensions

Height: max 135 mm approx, Width: max 150 mm, Length: max 380 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1922.43.5

Research and responses

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