- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Carved paddle club, known as a kiniknini, with inlaid whale bone on the handle. [ZM 2/6/2016]
- Long description
- Carved paddle club, Kinikini. The club has a broad carved blade. Across the base of the bilaterally symmetrical blade is a curved stiffening bar, extending to the tips of two short 'wings', one of which is damaged and missing the tip. A less pronounced spine runs the length of the club from the tip of the blade to the flange on the end of the handle. The entire surface of the blade has been intricately carved on both sides with variously arranged blocks and bands of tavatava design consisting of geometric triangular shapes and linear decoration. The handle has also been carved with bands of zigzag design in two places, a wide band mid way down the handle, approximately 111 mm wide and a narrow band directly above the flanged butt of the handle approximately 13 mm wide. A star shaped disc of whale bone has been inlaid in the handle above the wider band of carved decoration on the handle. [FB 20/02/2012]
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1933
- Date collected
- By 1933
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1933
- Materials and processes
- Material Wood Plant, Material Whale Bone Animal, Process Carved, Process Polished, Process Inlaid, Process Incised
- Dimensions
- Width: max 240 mm approx, Length: max 1015 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1933.32.4
- Research and responses
Examined on the 12th/13th June by Fergus Clunie and Andy Mills 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). His notes read: Kinikini - star/sun inlay in handle on one side.Just above tavatava grip handle. Decoration [illegible words] not completed on one side. [unsigned and undated]
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.' He also notes on page 31: 'Kinikini were 'akau of high status and were considered to be the exclusive insignia of high chiefs (hou'eiki) and possession priests (taula).' [ZM 10/8/2016]
Search terms: Weapon, Status, Club, Status Object