Magazines - Tribal Art Spring 2007

By Deborah Waite, professor at the University of Hawaii. Her area of specialty is the Solomon Islands, where she has conducted extensive field work.

Introduction:
During the first decade of the nineteenth century, shields were abundant in the Western Solomon Islands. On the islands of New Georgia and Santa Isabel, a particular form of surface decoration involving nautilus shell inlay singled out two relatively small groups of shields, the one constructed of cane with fiber and the other of bark. This article examines some of these shields, including two that have not been published in illustrated form: one acquired by Julius Brenchley in 1865 and another obtained much more recently (but equally old) by Kevin Conru.
At the outset, it should be noted that shields were actively used in battle to deflect arrows and spear blows before the advent of rifles. Even though that role was terminated, shields retained social and ritual importance for their owners and accompanied them everywhere.C. M. Woodford, first District Commissioner of the British Solomon Islands, once remarked that “Each man, no matter how short the distance he may be going, carries a shield and a tomahawk [axe] about three feet long” (Woodford 1890: 22). A much more recent indication of the importance of shields was demonstrated to me by Faletau Leve of Munda, Roviana Lagoon, New Georgia. Leve possessed a very frayed fiber shield for which he could trace five generations of owners (fig. 1). Leve intended to hand over the shield to his son when he thought that he was ready to receive it (Leve Personal Communication 1996, 1998). Worn and bereft of any decoration, the shield could only be gently moved into position for me to photograph it. A small wooden shield served as a substitute whenever Leve wanted to demonstrate shield movement (fig. 2).