dance-baton
- Museum number
- Oc1939,08.54
- Description
-
Dance-baton of wood, in form of a canoe prow
- Dimensions
-
Height: 89.50 centimetres
-
Width: 22 centimetres
-
Depth: 2.50 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Register reads: See Partington, 'Pacific Album', Vol. II, p.222. / [SAN CRISTOVAL, SOLOMONS H.J.B.]
The provenance is thus conjectural. Dance-batons of this form were used in south Malaita, Makira and the neighbouring small islands (see Ivens 1927:143,168). According to Fr Ben Wate of Sa'a in 2008, the baton (ahui) is used in dances which enact bonito fishing. Its 'curve' (toutoune) represents the prow of a bonito canoe and is used to imitate the movement of the canoe.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1939
- Acquisition notes
- Register reads, for collection Oc1939,08:
Collected by H P Rogers, ornithologist, before 1914, in Australia. However inspection of the original correspondence from Mathews reveals that this should be J P Rogers, who was Mathews' ornithological collector in Northern Australia.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1939,08.54