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PACIFIC AESTHETICS AND EUROPEAN COLLECTING CRAZE Wuvulu and Aua Design Fanny Wonu Veys
FIGURE 1 Aua and Wuvulu, Papua New Guinea; early 20th century; breadfruit tree, lime, plant fibres. Collectie Wereldmuseum WM-8292.
In this text, curator Fanny Wonu Veys examines multiple 'tellings' of a Pacific Islands model canoe to trace how its value was produced within a colonial, capitalist context. Using and questioning Western ethnographic practices, she explores the colonial geographical categorisations, ideas of purity and 'tainted objects', aesthetic appreciation from Western artists, and what emerges when the object is viewed beyond a Western lens, considering Indigenous significance. What does a 'counterethnographic' reading of this object offer?