Reproduction Postcard: Talofa Samoa Ausstellung – Unsere Neuen Landsleute

This is a reproduction of a postcard featuring a colour illustration of a dance scene in Samoa with five seated figures surrounding a standing dancer. A row of five Samoan 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. The right hand side of the image has a hand written inscription in faded ink. The rear of the postcard is pre-printed with the words "Postcards of Samoa" and a hand written message in blue ballpoint pen ' Dear I'm sorry for the delay, I hope you like it. All the best from Hamburg, Malia'

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. Although the postcard is a fake reproduction, the fact that there is a trade in genuine and fake postcards 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 German-Sāmoan 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