The Treasured Things of Tokelau

Authors

  • Judith Huntsman The University of Auckland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15286/jps.126.3.253-282

Keywords:

pearl-shells, skipjack casting, Tui Tokelau, emblematic resources, cultural histories of things, Tokelau

Abstract

Drawing upon multiple lines of research in and about Tokelau—ethnography as participant-observation and conversation/discussion, documentary research in all available published sources (few) and unpublished materials in offices and archives, Tokelau narratives and texts, conversations with other scholars of Tokelau, and relevant anthropological literature—the late Antony Hooper and I have aimed to create a narrative of Tokelau over time and in places that speaks to both differences and continuities in Tokelau lifeway—their activities and beliefs, ideas and relationships. This essay is a contribution to and illustration of our endeavours, focusing on those particular things that Tokelau people treasure: their emblematic resources and the valued things they make from them, and their supreme valued treasures—pearl-shells (tifa), and the lures (pā) and pendants (kahoa) fashioned from them.

Author Biography

Judith Huntsman, The University of Auckland

Judith Huntsman has been an Honorary Professorial Research Fellow in Anthropology at the University of Auckland since her retirement in early 2001. She has been active in retirement, first researching and writing The Future of Tokelau: Decolonising Agendas 1975-2006 (Auckland University Press, 2007), and thereafter publishing articles on aspects of Tokelau life and history. The article herein derives from her Nayacakalou Medal Lecture, presented earlier this year. Her association with the Polynesian Society is long-standing and she was Honorary Editor of the Journal for two decades, a tenure that ended in 2016. Her research focus has been with Tokelau people, in the atolls and in New Zealand, and often in collaboration with the late Antony Hooper; their diverse Tokelau research has always been in relation to the lives and histories of other peoples and places of Polynesia.

Flotilla of canoes returned from ālo atu with raised paddles indicating a large catch

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Published

2017-09-28

Issue

Vol. 126 No. 3 (2017): September 2017

Section

Articles

License

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The Polynesian Society
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