Tuiga (ceremonial headdress)

Tuiga

The tuiga is a ceremonial headdress that is associated with rank and status in Samoan society. In the 19th century its use was reserved solely for ali'i (chiefs) and their taupou (chiefs’ daughters) or manaia (chiefs’ sons). It was worn by chiefs in battle and for ceremonial processions during ta’alolo (food offerings). It was also worn in celebratory dances and for important occasions that were marked with ‘ava ceremonies. The older style of tuiga was a composite headdress made up of five parts including the pou (siapo foundation), the lave (triple staff or upright framework), the pale fuiono (forehead band), the ‘ie ‘ula (a bundle of red and white feathers), and lauulu (tufts of human hair). However in the 21st century the most common type of tuiga are single-piece hat-like structures such as this one.

This tuiga is built on a cap-shaped foundation of white tapa that has been sewn together. A decorated framework of five lave (wooden sticks or rods) forms the front of the headdress. Each lave is covered in a tight binding of coconut fibre cord decorated with tufts of crimson feathers. Attached to this framework are four round pearl shell discs each with a smaller, flat white shell at its centre. Immediately below these discs, on the forehead band of the cap, the small flat white shells reappear and overlap each other in rows. The bottom edge of the headdress is decorated with a string of plaited coconut fibre. To the rear of the headdress dozens of strands of thin coconut fibre have been gathered at one end and glued to the base of the lave to imitate human hair, fanning out around the head.

This headdress is part of a complete Taupou costume that was produced especially for the museum. The tuiga is made in the newer style which sees all the individual elements of the headdress combined into one structural piece. As a contemporary example of tuiga, this headdress is significant because it shows how the production of tuiga has evolved over time. The use of coconut sennit as a substitute for human hair is one instance where one of the more time-consuming processes involved in making these ceremonial headdresses has been curtailed by the incorporation of other materials into its production.

This tuiga was purchased from Rupi Taituuga in 2005.

Peter Buck, Samoan Material Culture (Honolulu: Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, 1930), 615-619.

John B. Stair, Old Samoa, or, Flotsam and jetsam from the Pacific Ocean (Papakura: R. McMillan, 1983), 117.