Postcard (Talofa Samoa)

This is a postcard from the early 20th century, featuring a colour illustration of a dance scene in Samoa with five seated figures surrounding a standing dancer. A row of five Samoan style fale (houses) and a grove of coconut trees are depicted in the background. The greeting 'TALOFA SAMOA" (hello) Samoa is in the bottom left hand corner of the image. Other text on the picture side of the postcard translated here into English reads 'Austellung Samoa Unsere neuen landsleute' (Exhibition Samoa our new compatriots). The right hand side of the image has a hand written inscription in faded ink that translatess (8/9/03 Thank you for your postcard greetings). The rear of the postcard is printed with the words 'Deusthe Reichpost Postcarte'. It is addressed to "Herrn Mario ---------- Hannover Wintergarden" and post marked 9/9/03.

Significance

The postcard is part of a group of objects acquired on Te Papa’s behalf by German researcher Philipp Scorch as part of the co-collecting project Materialising German-Samoan Colonial Legacies (2016).

According to Schorch,“It is promoting a “Völkerschau” (“ethnic show” or “human zoo”), a widespread form of “entertainment”, organized by entrepreneurial figures such as Fritz Marquardt in which colonized (or other “exotic”) people and places were museologized and displayed in European and U.S. American metropolitan settings for the colonizing and “civilizing” citizenry. In this case, however, “Unsere neuen Landsleute,” or “Our new compatriots,” rather than “noble savages” are introduced, following the incorporation of Sāmoa into imperial Germany…It is an example of how Germany’s colonial past and the products of that era have a viable market of interest among collectors and continue to loom large in the contemporary imagination as part of the colonial legacy."

Acquisition History

This postcard was collected for Te Papa by Philipp Schorch as part of the co-collecting project Materialising German-Samoan Colonial Legacies (2016).

Reference

Schorch, Philipp, Sean Mallon and Nina Tonga Materialising German -Samoan Colonial Legacies in Schorch, Philipp et al. (2020) Refocusing Ethnographic Museums through Oceanic Lenses. University of Hawaii Press pp.121-147