Page 13 - Fiji Traveller Issue 2

BRINGING DOWN THE WALLS

The Fiji Museum reopens

By Samantha Magick were and the materials that were traded or bartered, such as the
mahima in its special basket made by the women of Lomaiwai.
For more than two years, the Fiji Museum’s doors were closed Visitors should be able to appreciate the importance of the
to the public. Now, with the opening of its flagship exhibition, tuluma in as far as food security is concerned for small atolls
Voyages: Stories of an Ocean People, we can see what the like Tuvalu. They must be empowered by the knowledge that
team has been busy working on. our forefathers were expert swimmers and divers, builders of
It’s a place transformed. magnificent houses that endured cyclones, and swift canoes that
“The necessity to change the Fiji Museum gallery is long were faster than schooners and could carry up to 200 warriors.”
overdue after three decades of adhoc curation, disconnected With the doors now open, Fiji Museum Head of Special
storylines, limited or no connection to our communities, and Projects Katrina Igglesden said there are ‘almost no words to
sharing a colonial view with minimal effort to better highlight describe’ what it feels like to see the museum filled with both
the voices of knowledge holders and Indigeneity,” writes local and international visitors.
Director, Sipiriano Nemani in his introduction to the brochure “Seeing people enjoy it is, I think, one of the most humbling
accompanying Voyages. feelings but also one of the best feelings, because it makes the
He says the exhibition embodies tolerance: “It is important for [museum] staff realise that the work being done is really worth
Fijians, young and old to understand why some of our ancestors it, and gives a boost for the rest of the work that has to be done.
used the sacred eel club to worship their gods, used masi to adorn There's a lot more to come.”
themselves and to learn the significance of the apei (fine mat) to Voyages includes some of the well-known elements of the
Rotuman traditions, status and ceremonies. Communities must museum’s collection, such as the ‘Ratu Finau’, a double hulled
be able to access information on why the use of the hookah drua (canoe), plus new elements that have never before been
was a favourite pastime for some Girmityas while labouring in displayed publicly. The space includes artistic installations—fish
the fields. They must learn who their traditional trading partners made from found materials swim across the gallery ceiling and

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