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Category:

Material culture(1)

Topic:

Tools

Consultant:

Niomfaga

shell awl = fa'o, a word that is now used for nail.

Holes in the sides of canoes and the outrigger were bored with this. Later they used hot iron points.

rasp = läje (the word for coral).

A rough coral piece was used to round the handle of the paddles etc.

Also the tail of the stingray (tu'u ne hai) was used as a rasp.

Category:

Material culture(2)

Topic:

Water containers

Consultant:

Nataniela

Two eyes were opened of the coconut = niu, for drinking. The holes were stuffed with a roll of dry coconut leaf.

Coconut fronds were often tied against coconut trees, the upper side? against the trunk so that they would catch the rain water and this would flow into the butt where there was a coconut shell to catch it.

Halava is a coconut shell for holding drinking water which was hung up on hooks (fei). Their oil they used to keep in the shell of a pirorogo, where it would keep for many years.

Coconuts (large) had their]holes bored and hung on fei, which can hold 20 halava. When corked with dry banana leaves water can be kept in them for many months. A coconut has three eyes: one nuju, and two hasu. The two hasu are pierced and sennit is run through them to hang the halava up; the third hole left for drinking. Halavafoma = one halava. Halava usi = bunch of halava [usi1: aux. noun, bunch].

A single halava with a hole pierced between the two lesser holes to make four for drinking was called pito. This was used for the king's drinking and washing.

Water was caught in halava by putting them at the end of a coconut leaf bound around a tree. It catches water off the trunk and the leaf acts as catch and drip chute into the halava. Well water was used for food and bathing. Drinking was from halava.

pirorogo = a kind of gourd, formerly used as bottles (jou)

nuju = mouth, beak, open end, orifice; the most easily pierced of the three "eyes" of a coconut-shell.
hasu = the two less easily pierced eyes of a coconut-shell]

Category:

Material culture(3)

Topic:

Coconut grater

Consultant:

Undisclosed

Coconut grater = foa. It has a horn with steel or shell blade for grating coconut. Saw tooth blade. Seat of wood with 2" back. Four legs. About 10" high to seat, 2' long. Horn is 14" long.

A drawing accompanies this description in notebook.

Category:

Material culture(4)

Topic:

Eating table

Consultant:

Undisclosed

Umef atiag: a small table made of one piece of hefau wood. Four legs and midrib down center of bottom side. Small piece between legs on long side with hole in it for hanging up. Table about 3' long; 14-18" wide.

A drawing accompanies this description in notebook.

Category:

Material Culture(5)

Topic:

Turmeric

Consultant:

Nataniela

nini = mark with paint ; anointment with mena (comes from raga tree) of ginger family.

raga is dark yellow, the color of curry

mena is light yellow

nini 'inoso = to marry

First they dig up the raga (roots) to be used and cleaned (the amount used is called a te pogi). Then the roots have their skin scraped off. Then they are grated with a grater.

Raga is planted up to October. One man tries to plant as much as one te pogi, 12 baskets or even more. It is very desirable stuff. When it is ripe they begin ho (= to squeeze). They begin by scraping off the skin, then they grate it by scraping it on wood tied around with sennit. A tama = a grater for this specific purpose.

Then this is put in a great wooden vessel (aipu'uga) shaped like a canoe. It is mixed with water and stirred by hand. When the froth comes on top, it is taken off, and this is mena. That left in vessel is called tau'a, this is eaten as fekei. It is like arrowroot, and is dried like starch and kept.

Mesulama had some which was 14 years old. Mena is kept in coconuts.

A great feast (10-15 pigs) is made for the time of making mena. A big feast is held for this event. Presents (of food and 'apei) are given to the man in charge of the work.

The froth allowed to dry in the coconut shells. If kept in lumps, mena will last 30 years. Mena is often used as a very valuable present (o'moe) which is brought to a person, visiting someone else.

Mena mixed with oil is daubed on a couple at their wedding. If a relative comes to see you, a greeting is often given by daubing mena on him.

When a sau, mua, tonu, or tautei is installed into office, this is called ninini (anointing). Mena is used then.

nini = to smear or paint in certain ceremonies, as when installing a chief, marrying etc.

raga = turmeric, kind of ginger plant with very long simple leaves, and flowerless

mena = yellow stain made from the rhizome of the turmeric plant

fekei = Rotuman pudding

See sau & mua
tonu = district messengert
tautei = fishing expedition leader

Category:

Material culture(6)

Topic:

Bark cloth

Consultant:

Akanisi

The bark of the jala tree was stripped and left in the sun to dry. The outer surface was scraped off with a shell = 'osi.

The strips were then beaten on on an anvil = fisi, with a beater = fu'fua he.

The strips were pasted together with the juice of the sa'a, squeezed from the leaf.

This sa'a juice was also used for painting the uha as it was dark reddish in color. The designs were marked on freehand. There were no carved boards or blocks, a statement made only upon direct questioning.

sa'a = screwpine (Pandanus tectorius)

uha = bark cloth

Category:

Material culture(7)

Topic:

Bark cloth

Consultant:

Sarote

Made from bark of jala tree. Its rough outside was split off when wet, and the good part dried in the sun. It was wet in water and hammered into wider strips.

The juice of the sa'a bark (red) is taken and rubbed over the overlapping edges of two strips of uha to stick them together and make them red in color.

Screens of uha were made for favored young women--made into mosquito nets.

Flat board--very smooth and dry; it had no legs. It was so dry that when they beat it, it could be heard a long way off.

Strips were wet and split but not scraped with a shell. The sa'a bark was scraped into shreds and then wrung in coconut fau, and juice came out.

Brush for putting on sa'a dye = koka, was a hammered piece of sa'a root. When one end was hammered, a nice brush was made.

To dye a paste and paint = koka.

Designs were painted by hand or red colored uha. Some uha were white.

Uha was made according to the size desired.

Category:

Material culture(8)

Topic:

Bark cloth

Consultant:

Undisclosed

Uha was made from the bark of a tree which has become extinct on the island.

People slept under an uha mosquito net which was hung over a center pole and fell down like a pup tent. The ends were closed up with uha. The uha of Rotuma was very thin.

Kume is the name of the carved board on which uha was stenciled.

Category:

Material culture(9)

Topic:

Bark cloth

Consultant:

Jotama

Uha was made of jala bark, a tree which had no branches and gave a good strip of bark without holes. The uha was stamped with a small carved block which was dipped in the paint and then pressed on the uha. There were no rollers or carved boards as stated by Niua. The paint was a mixture of mena, their juice squeezed from the bark of the favrau and the root of the 'ura.

favrau = tree type (Dracontomelon vitiense)

Category:

Material culture(10)

Topic:

Bark cloth

Consultant:

C. Jacobsen

Tapa (uha) was made from the bark of the armea. It was beaten into both small and large pieces.

Jacobson does not know of any boards or stencilling material. Designs were painted on free hand with paint. It looked very irregular.

armea = tree type ( Pipturus argenteus)

Category:

Material culture(11)

Topic:

Dyes

Consultant:

Katalina

There was a red dye made from the 'ura tree called koka. This was used to paint on the uha.

'ura = Indian mulberry (Morinda citrifolia)

Category:

Material culture(12)

Topic:

Dyes

Consultant:

Fr. Soubreyan

There are swamps behind several villages where brackish water has seeped through, the village itself being on the ridge of sand built up by the sea. In these swamps there is a sort of peat or black rotted wood. The natives bury their garlands (white titis etc.) and allow them to become stained black.

There is also a native red dye, from a reed, a pink dye, and a yellow dye = mena.

The titi are made of vasvas bark, are worn in a band 4-6" wide and hang in strips.

vasvasi = a kind of tree (Sterculia fanaiho) with a straight trunk. The bark is torn into strips and used for tying purposes. As a finely shredded mass it is used for squeezing and straining kava. Formerly it was used for making a kind of cloth.

Category:

Material culture(13)

Topic:

String making

Consultant:

Churchward

Steps in making string:

1. la 'ol = the breadfruit is chopped.

2. la rag = the bark is torn apart with the teeth into thin wide strips.

3. fao 'ul ta = the strips are put into the sea water where they remain all night.

4. 'oi = then it is scraped with 'asi, a shell cockle.

5. havei ti'u mamasa = the strips are dried in the sun.

6. karoro = another scraping with a pakrava, the coconut shell, to make it supple.

7. jei = they are torn into fine strands.

8. miri = they are rolled up on the leg into strands

9. 'alolo = two strands are twisted together also between the palm and upper leg in the Samoan fashion

La' la hua 'ul = To get the breadfruit, i.e. the bark which is split into strips for the string.
hiri = twisting of three strands or braid.
hinau = the weaving of baskets.
fia = the weaving of nets.
sa'a = the weaving of mats.

'asi = kind of cockle, the shell of which is much used for scraping purposes.

Category:

Material culture(14)

Topic:

String making

Consultant:

Fuata

The bark of the breadfruit is split and the inner fibres are dried and cleaned by scraping with a coconut shell. The small separate strands are gathered in wisps of three and rolled together along the thigh or leg. Then these are rolled end to end to make it into string or cord; in the same fashion sinnet is spun before braiding. The breadfruit cord is made of two twisted strings rather than three braid elements. It is called 'alol.

Unu, or sinnet of coconut, is made of three braided strands, the whole manufacture being identical with that of the Samoan type..

'alolo = string or cotton; to twist (two strands) together, esp. between the palm of the hand and the top of the thigh, as in making string.

unu = cord made of coconut fibre (henu)

Category:

Material culture(15)

Topic:

Fire sticks

Consultant:

Uafta

There were two types of fire plow in Rotuma, the single and the double. The first was worked by one man, rubbing the plow back and fourth on the hearth. This was the si'a rahi.

The second type had two plows which were rubbed back and forth end to end on the hearth by two men sitting opposite to each other. This was called the si'a kalé.

si'a = to obtain fire by friction; rahi = fire.

Category:

Material culture(16)

Topic:

Perfume

Consultant:

Fr.
Soubreyan

Native perfumes were made in the olden days from the milk of the coconut (not the oil squeezed from the meat - though this may have been scented) which was scented with several species of crushed flowers.

Perfumes were used at burials, weddings and dances.

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