item details
Alfred Burton; photographer; July 1884; Viti Levu
Overview
Three men and a woman holding a baby are standing, two men are crouching in a clear. The sea is visible in the background.
"The shirtless man standing behind the group has a club over his shoulder, of the type called gugu or tivitivi and patterned on the butterfly fish. The man squatting appears to be holding a scrub-clearing club. The man far right with a wristwatch holds a length of bamboo, used as a water container or a stamping-tube for rhythm in music, while the man in a white woollen singlet holds a bundle of cloth in his left hand, and in his right a cane-knife, favourite implement of Fijian village men to this day."-Dr Roderick Ewins.