- Title Pages
- List of figures
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the text
- Introduction: conceptualising Curatopia
-
1 The museum as method (revisited)1 -
2 What not to collect? Post-connoisseurial dystopia and the profusion of things -
3 Concerning curatorial practice in ethnological museums: an epistemology of postcolonial debates -
4 Walking the fine line: From Samoa with Love? at the Museum Fünf Kontinente, Munich -
5 Curating across the colonial divides -
6 Thinking and working through difference: remaking the ethnographic museum in the global contemporary -
7 The times of the curator -
8 Baroque modernity, critique and Indigenous epistemologies in museum representations of the Andes and Amazonia -
9 Swings and roundabouts: pluralism and the politics of change in Canada’s national museums -
10 Community engagement, Indigenous heritage and the complex figure of the curator: foe, facilitator, friend or forsaken? -
11 Joining the club: a Tongan ‘akau in New England -
12 ćəsnaɁəm, the City before the City: exhibiting pre-Indigenous belonging in Vancouver -
13 The figure of the kaitiaki: learning from Māori curatorship past and present -
14 Curating the uncommons: taking care of difference in museums -
15 Collecting, curating and exhibiting cross-cultural material histories in a post-settler society -
16 Curating relations between ‘us’ and ‘them’: the changing role of migration museums in Australia1 -
17 Agency and authority: the politics of co-collecting -
18 He alo ā he alo / kanohi ki te kanohi / face-to-face: curatorial bodies, encounters and relations -
19 Curating time -
20 Virtual museums and new directions? - Index
Joining the club: a Tongan ‘akau in New England
Joining the club: a Tongan ‘akau in New England
- Chapter:
- (p.176) 11 Joining the club: a Tongan ‘akau in New England
- Source:
- Curatopia
- Author(s):
Ivan Gaskell
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
This chapter examines the place of Oceanic clubs in New England collections. During the nineteenth century, they occupied an equivocal position in the New England mental repertory as indices of savage sophistication, and as souvenirs of colonial childhood or travel. Focusing on a Tongan ‘akau tau in the collection of the Chatham Historical Society on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, this chapter traces what can be known of its history as a highly regarded prestige gift item among New Englanders from the middle of the nineteenth century until its entry into the museum. As a thing that an early owner could alienate legitimately, its presence in Chatham is not unethical, yet it nonetheless imposes stewardship responsibilities—consultation with the originating community—that such a small institution is poorly placed to meet. This requires understanding and patience rather than disapprobation.
Keywords: Chatham Historical Society, club ‘akau tau, Darius E. Hammond, Hawai‘i, Peabody Essex Museum, Stephen Willard Phillips, Tonga, Frederick S. Wight
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- Title Pages
- List of figures
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the text
- Introduction: conceptualising Curatopia
-
1 The museum as method (revisited)1 -
2 What not to collect? Post-connoisseurial dystopia and the profusion of things -
3 Concerning curatorial practice in ethnological museums: an epistemology of postcolonial debates -
4 Walking the fine line: From Samoa with Love? at the Museum Fünf Kontinente, Munich -
5 Curating across the colonial divides -
6 Thinking and working through difference: remaking the ethnographic museum in the global contemporary -
7 The times of the curator -
8 Baroque modernity, critique and Indigenous epistemologies in museum representations of the Andes and Amazonia -
9 Swings and roundabouts: pluralism and the politics of change in Canada’s national museums -
10 Community engagement, Indigenous heritage and the complex figure of the curator: foe, facilitator, friend or forsaken? -
11 Joining the club: a Tongan ‘akau in New England -
12 ćəsnaɁəm, the City before the City: exhibiting pre-Indigenous belonging in Vancouver -
13 The figure of the kaitiaki: learning from Māori curatorship past and present -
14 Curating the uncommons: taking care of difference in museums -
15 Collecting, curating and exhibiting cross-cultural material histories in a post-settler society -
16 Curating relations between ‘us’ and ‘them’: the changing role of migration museums in Australia1 -
17 Agency and authority: the politics of co-collecting -
18 He alo ā he alo / kanohi ki te kanohi / face-to-face: curatorial bodies, encounters and relations -
19 Curating time -
20 Virtual museums and new directions? - Index
