Associated documentation and provenance of historical photographs of indigenous peoples provide little information about the subjects, the photographs reveal rather the unknown and anonymous colonial reality.
The Fijian women in these images, photographed by anthropologist Arthur Maurice Hocart, are not just subjects, they are our daughters, sisters, mothers, and grandmothers.
Raici yau ina kemu i yaloyalo (Looking at me through your reflection) reframes and reclaims the image-making of Fijian women.
Images: Fijian women photographed by Arthur Maurice Hocart, circa 1909 to 1914. (Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. 1998.300.160; 1998.300.241; 1998.300.240; 1998.300.239; 1998.300.102; 1998.300.238; 1998.300.137; 1998.300.147; 1998.300.159; 1998.300.133).
Commissioned for Marama Dina, respectfully led by a curatorium comprising members of The Veiqia Project, local Pasifika women and C-A-C staff, 17 August – 13 October 2019, Cambelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown.