In the Austral Islands, as elsewhere in Polynesia, drums almost certainly formed part of the ritual paraphernalia of sacred sites (marae), where they were played to accompany songs, dances, and ceremonies. Only roughly a dozen Austral Islands drums survive. They consist of tall, thin-walled cylinders of hardwood with drumheads of sharkskin, kept stretched to the correct tension by lengths of cordage secured to a series of lugs. While the upper portion of the instrument was frequently undecorated, the drums have ornate openwork bases often adorned with stylized female figures, possibly representing ancestors or dancing women. The beauty of Austral Island drums was apparently appreciated well beyond the archipelago prior to western contact. Examples appear in eighteenth-century sketches made by early European explorers in Tahiti, some four hundred miles away.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Drum (Pahu)
Date:early 19th century
Geography:French Polynesia, Austral Islands
Culture:Austral Islanders
Medium:Wood, sharkskin, fiber
Dimensions:H. 51 3/8 × W. 9 3/8 × D. 10 in. (130.5 × 23.8 × 25.4 cm)
Classification:Wood-Musical Instruments
Credit Line:The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1969
Accession Number:1978.412.720
[Julius Carlebach Gallery, New York, until 1957]; Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York, 1957, on loan to The Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1957–1969; The Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1969–1978
Museum of Primitive Art. "Masterpieces from the South Seas in the Collection of the MOPA," May 19, 1965–October 3, 1965.
Museum of Primitive Art. "The World of Primitive Art," July 12, 1966–September 11, 1966.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art of Oceania, Africa and the Americas from The Museum of Primitive Art," May 10–August 17, 1969.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Sculpture of Oceania," April 4–September 5, 1972.
Stolpe, Hjalmar. Collected Essays in Ornamental Art: On Evolution in the Ornamental Art of Savage Peoples: Studies in American Ornamentation. Stockholm: Aftonbladets Tryckeri, 1927, p. 23.
Museum of Primitive Art. Masterpieces in the Museum of Primitive Art: Africa, Oceania, North America, Mexico, Central to South America, Peru. Handbook series. New York, NY: Museum of Primitive Art, 1965, no. 56.
Wardwell, Allen. The Sculpture of Polynesia. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1967, p. 34, no. 30.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas from the Museum of Primitive Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1969, no. 23.
Steven, Phelps. Art and Artifacts of the Pacific, Africa, and the Americas: The James Hooper Collection. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1976, pp. 143, 145.
Kaeppler, Adrienne L. Artificial Curiosities: Being an Exposition of Native Manufactures Collected on the Three Pacific Voyages of Captain James Cook on the Occasion of the European Discovery of the Hawaiian Islands by Captain Cook. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication, Vol. vol. 65. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1978, p. 160, fig. 303.
Newton, Douglas. "Visual Arts of the Pacific." In Africa, Pacific, and Pre-Columbian Art in the Indiana University Art Museum. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.
Pelrine, Diane. Affinities of Form: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas from the Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection. Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1996.
D'Alleva, Anne. Arts of the Pacific Islands. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1998, p. 105.
Hooper, Steven. "Double-Figure Fly Whisk Handles from the Austral Islands." Arts and Cultures vol. 2 (2001), pp. 179–92. p. 33, 35–37.
Kjellgren, Eric. Oceania: Art of the Pacific Islands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007, pp. 301–302, no. 181.
Richards, Rhys. "Austral Island 'Paddles,' their Main Motifs and a Global Search for Their Prototype." In The Austral Islands: History, Art, and Art History. Porirua: Paremata Press, 2012, pp. 1, 4–5, 14.
Kjellgren, Eric. How to Read Oceanic Art. How to Read 3. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014.
Moore J. Kenneth, Bradley Strauchen-Scherer, and Jayson Kerr Dobney. Musical Instruments: Highlights of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. First Printing ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015, p. 146.
Nuku, Maia. "Atea: Nature and Divinity in Polynesia." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 76, no. 3 (Winter 2019), p. 35, fig. 32.
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The Met's collection of art of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central, and South America comprises more than eleven thousand works of art of varied materials and types, representing diverse cultural traditions from as early as 3000 B.C.E. to the present.
