Magazines - Tribal Art Summer 2009

By Roger Boulay

Introduction
Admiral Bruny d’Entrecasteaux and his sailors were the first in the West to encounter an unusual object.1 During the course of his mission to find the lost French explorer La Pérouse, d’Entrecasteaux anchored in the harbor of Balade in what we now know as New Caledonia from April 17–May 3, 1793. His stay was longer than Captain Cook’s in 1774, and he was able to observe objects other than the spears and clubs that his illustrious predecessor had seen. While there, he was presented with an object that he had difficulty describing. He thought that it slightly resembled the monstrance used in Catholic ritual in connection with the Host, and to this day the term remains part of the French name for the object, which is called hache ostensoir, or “monstrance axe.” Over the next few days, his officers were able to collect several examples of this coveted object, as the New Caledonians sought to win the good graces of the white devils who had arrived equipped with cannons. Jacques-Julien de Labillardière, the naturalist on the expedition, made note of the name the natives had for the object, namely n’bouet, a term that in the local Balade/Nyelayu language simply means “club.”2 It does not specify the special characteristics of this object, which have nothing to do with those of an ordinary club (fig. 3).
This ritual axe is essentially a disc crafted from a local variety of jadeite, which is attached with rattan fibers (Smilax sp.) to a cylindrical wooden handle covered with tapa cloth that is held in place by delicately wound strands of red-dyed fruit bat fur.3 The base consists of half of a coconut shell, also covered with the tapa and bound to the handle, containing small pebbles so the object can be used as a rattle when a speaker shakes it to punctuate his oration. The ornamentation at the top of the handle, where the blade joins it, is always carefully made. Sometimes there are sculpted janiform faces there, further decorated with plaited materials.4 Other examples have only very finely woven plaiting, similar in style to that seen on the tops of shell money (adi) or binding bamboo plaques to ceremonial spears.5
The axe is further adorned with shell pendants (Oliva, Ovula, and Natica species), whose whiteness contrasts with the wine-red color of the fruit bat fur binding. The latter is executed with as much care and finesse as the much-admired diamond pattern plaiting from Fiji and the bindings on Cook Islands adze haftings.
The base is not designed to function as a support for holding the axe upright, as the weight of the blade and the lightness of the base do not allow it to stand. Instead, the axe is made to be brandished in the hand.