Art has always been integral to the culture of the indigenous people of Fiji. Its quality was quickly recognised by the first Westerners to visit, who collected it avidly, and a quantity of material found its way to Tasmania. It came via seamen for whom the busy port of Hobart was a transit stop or a home port; from Wesleyan missionaries headquartered there for a time and then continued to support the Mission in Fiji; and from collectors who have either donated or sold their collections to public museums since the early 19th Century.
This book brings together objects from all of these sources, illustrating them and providing contextual information in words and pictures of their physical qualities and historical social importance. Many have never been published previously.
Of primary importance are the collections of Tasmania's two principal museums, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery which have actively collaborated in and contributed to this book – supplemented with material from other smaller collections, including the author's, Rob Ewins.