Fiji/Fijian Tabua Discussion

[harvg]

Hi, I am an avid, yet amateur collector, of Fijian artefacts. Came across this Tabua, which is over 7" long, and a museum quality specimen. There is an old ink inscription, which I can't quite decipher.....

"To R A Cullien....." ??

Not sure if the RA refers to the province Ra....?

Welcome any thoughts, comments, or pics of anything Fijian that you may collect.

Note: unable to get my photo file size small enough to upload them here.....😟.....any suggestions?

[kai]

Pic size is fairly forgiving these days: For this forum it's 1280 pixels in width, 1280 pixels in height or a file size of 1mb.

There are several free software options for reducing pic size/bandwidth:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=3248
(An update on apps for mobile phone users might be good, I guess. Any tips to share?)

Regards,
Kai

[harvg]

Pic of Tabua now uploaded for discussion....

harvg

[kai]

Hello harvg,

Came across this Tabua, which is over 7" long, and a museum quality specimen.
Congrats, that seems like a unusually large example!

Can you ascertain whether the very attachments of the fibre string are original or have been repaired?


There is an old ink inscription, which I can't quite decipher.....
"To R A Cullien....." ??
Looks like "To R.A.Cullien." to me. Quite likely the name of the recipient of the gift/request - seems like there are more historic examples with inscribed names.

Have you tried online searches for R. A. Cullien? Might well be possible to elucidate the provenance and possibly history of this piece which may very well signify a traditional "cultural contract" between a Fiji community and an outsider (or foreign interest group).

Regards,
Kai