Fiji faces: war-paint or fashion?

Rev. Thomas Williams

An early English Methodist missionary in Fiji, Rev. Thomas Williams, stunned the literary world in 1858 with his landmark work of anthropology, Fiji and the Fijians. Republished by the Fiji Museum in 1982, museum director Fergus Clunie states in his Introduction (p.1)

Rev. Thomas Williams' slim yet surprisingly encyclopaedic classic remains easily the most remarkable of a handful of of truly sound books on Fijian anthropology. Run alongside the totally honest and incomparably experienced observations of this long-dead missionary amateur, the trumpeted yet transient works of more than one professional academic of recent times not so much pale, as shrivel.

Williams, aged 25, arrived in Fiji in 1840, where he worked tirelessly to establish missions along with colleagues. By 1853 his health was broken and he was forced to leave Fiji for the dry climate of Adelaide, Australia. He must have recovered his health for he became President of the Australian Methodist Conference in 1873. Williams returned to a transformed Fiji in 1885, for celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Methodist Mission there.

Fiji face-paint designs

Today I want to share the engraving below from Williams' wonderful book. I'm sure you'll agree the designs are very sharp, even though the resolution is not.

Fiji face-paint designs based on Williams' sketches

Williams wrote only a few words about face painting, in contrast to his detailed treatment of Fijian hairstyles, the subject of my blog post Cannibal Coiffure. He implies that face painting was purely decorative. Jet black was restricted to men, but both sexes used vermilion "applied in spots, stripes and patches".

However, I wonder if face painting may have been used in battle. I recently watched a documentary about World War 2 camouflage of Allied vessels, designed by avant-garde artists. The patterns deceived watchers from both air and sea, saving many, many lives. Some of these pre-colonial Fijian face designs are similar in principle to those used on the ships. Just a thought!

My personal favourite is 2nd row down, far left. What's yours? If you encountered any of these faces on a dark street, how would you feel? Amused, bamboozled or petrified?

If you have friends interested in Fiji or the Pacific islands in general, I encourage you to comment on and share this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Bernadette

B.M. Allsopp