Model Canoe with Figures

“Point and sail in any direction as long as you know how to return home. You have to navigate the space between the borders of your skin and the intelligence of the tongueless horizon.” —Albert Wendt, Samoan author, from the poem “Stepping Stones,” 2018 Incorporating precious materials such as shells and feathers, model canoes often stored valuable items or bones of the deceased. This small-scale canoe was safeguarded in communal ceremonial houses. On many islands, the fabrication of model canoes intensified with the arrival of European sailors. The foreigners took them home as souvenirs and as examples of indigenous naval construction principles. The small figures set in this canoe from the Trobriand Islands represent five ancestors. Because canoes transported the first groups of women and men who founded the different societies across the Pacific, representations of and references to canoes are prominent in Oceanic art and life. Canoes are considered living beings, are named, and are accompanied by a myth or song recounting the history of their travels.