SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM
Fiji Collection
Annotated Database
In October and November 2001, Bev Ewins and I were guests of the South Australian Museum in Adelaide for 6 weeks. During that time we together surveyed their large and significant collection of Fiji material, identifying, examining, measuring, and photographing it.
At the conclusion of the exercise, I prepared a database of the entire collection, annotating the taxonomic information with remarks about the object types, uses etc.
By agreement with Dr Barry Craig, Curator, this material is placed here on the Just Pacific website to provide immediate access to the information for the general public.
I should here acknowledge the major assistance I received from Professor Paul Geraghty of USP, who generously discussed Fijian nomenclature with me. Also, as with anyone discussing traditional Fijian weaponry, I could not have commented on those things without Fergus Clunie's seminal work on the subject, Fijian Weapons and Warfare. Any errors that may remain in either area, however, are mine alone.
In the "Remarks" I sometimes refer to books where more information can be accessed. Bibliographic details of these books can be obtained on this website, at http://www.justpacific.com/fiji/bibliographies/
Research is ongoing, and the information and remarks on this database will be amended if and when new information is discovered.
NOTE: The photographs and notes are copyright and anyone wishing to use either for further publication should contact me. Citation for academic purposes, with the URL of this site plus a note of the date of accessing it, is certainly permitted. Similarly, curators who wish to use particular remarks to append to similar material on their databases, may freely do so BUT must cite Rod Ewins as author, webpage and access date.
Requests for any further information about the collection should be addressed to Dr Craig at the South Australian Museum.
Roderick Ewins PhD
Latest update: October 2012
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