Solomon Island Fishing Floats by Deborah Waite
The Instrumentality of Fishing Floats from Eastern Solomon Islands
By Deborah Waite
People living in the southeastern Solomon Island (Sa’a district, Malaita, Star Harbor region San Cristobal. Ulawa, Uki, Santa Ana, Santa Catalina) developed several means of fishing for different species of fish. Composite hooks were used for bonito, as was kite-fishing; large fishing nets were employed for dugong, as were various types of line fishing. One form of line fishing involved baited wooden floats attached in a row to a single line. Their imagery recalled that found on canoes, canoe houses, and malaohu initiation platforms. When not in use, decorated floats were kept in the sacred canoe houses; floats for household use were plain (Davenport 1968:1990: 122-3).
The floats have long attracted the attention of visitors to the islands. The interest of outsiders who began to acquire or collect floats resulted ultimately in their presence in museums world-wide - from Great Britain and Europe to the Pacific and the United States.
1865 was an early starting date for float acquisition by an outsider. Julius Brenchley who had travelled on the 1865 voyage of H.M.S. Curacoa to the Pacific with a stopover in the Solomon Islands. He acquired thirteen floats that are now in two museums in Great Britain, the British Museum and the Maidstone Museum, Kent (cf. Waite 1987:55-57,94). His group of floats included birds, diving fish and a small sea spirit, recognizable by its skeletal appearance and the small canoe in which it stands (Image 1).
Sea spirit fishing float, Ulawa. Collected by Brenchley, 1865. British Museum Oc 6317. Total height of float 84.5 cm. Height of figure 25 cm. Published Waite 1987: cover and plate 12, 762. 765.
What of other early observations? H.B. Guppy acquired one float and wrote the following: "Another common method of fishing in the eastern islands... consists in the use of afloat of wood about three feet in length and rather bigger than a walking stick. It is weighted by a stone at one end so that it floats upright in the water, a fishing line with the spider web bait being attached to its upper end [which]... is rudely cut in imitation of a wading bird...the figure of the bird being supposed to attract a larger fish. There is, however, a difference. A glance at one of these floats...will convince anyone that a fish is not likely to be deceived by such a sorry representation of a bird" (Guppy 1887:152, illustration p. 138).
Missionary Robert Codrington noted that "a float is used, a short stick or wooden shaft, shaped like a bird on top.... these floats are used to catch only flying fish, and that on account of their extreme shyness.... [among] floats on which the figure of a bird occurs, the line is wound round the bottom of the bird's back and a projection below made for the purpose. For this, the shape of a bird is certainly convenient.... " (Codrington 1891: 316-17). Codrington's observations come closer to the recording of specific context, i.e. the use of figural wooden floats specifically in the procuring of flying fish. Neither Guppy nor Codrington observed that one float belonged to and operated within a group of floats.
Drawing of a set of fishing floats. Ivens 1927:385.
In the 1920s, missionary Walter Ivens made the most significant recorded account of floats in the region of the Sa'a district, southern Malaita Island and Ulawa island. He described the technique of catching flying fish using wooden floats and provided the only diagram of a group of floats arranged in a line as they would have been seen by fishermen waiting in nearby canoes for the desired fish to seize bait attached to the bottom of each float. When a fish bit into the bait, the sculpture would suddenly disappear into the water. The bait "consists of the flesh of the robber crab or of prawns (Ivens 1027:385-6). Ivens, like Codrington, recorded that this technique was used for flying fish. Ten floats appeared in the diagram with birds at either end, followed on the right by an image of the mythical shark-man Karemanua. Remaining floats in the diagram appear to depict diving fish as well as one image of a swimming garfish, which he labelled Hoi Manole (cf. float 63941, Australian Museum, Sydney). Their active postures reiterate the behavior of flying fish as well as garfish. When tied together, the baited floats could be set out in the water, working together for a very brief period, appearing as though on exhibition in an open gallery on the sea but also bearing the bait destined to capture fish.
Much later in time (1971-2), S.M. Mead, writing from the Star Harbor area of San Christobal (Makira) and Santa Ana (Owa Raha) islands, recorded some information about fishing techniques. "Some old techniques are maintained. For example, fishing for flying fish with a kite or ao of various shapes is still practiced by a few men on both islands, and fishing for garfish (marore) by the float technique known as kasikasi-uwo-ni-marore, in which a set of ten upright wooden floats each decorated with fish or bird forms and each individually baited with small aigausu (goa fish) or aiganafui fish is set in the harbor and allowed to drift with the wind. In a demonstration that I witnessed a garfish was caught within seven minutes of the float being set. This technique is similar to that reported earlier for Ulawa by Ivens (1927) ...The tops of the floats were decorated with fish and bird forms" (Mead 1973a :41).
In his account, Mead referred to published examples of these floats (e.g. Edge-Partington (1890:1:197) as well as what he refers to as a" more recent set from Santa Ana (Davenport 1971:428-9). He omitted any information as to the choice of fish that were caught and their recipients. Mead acquired some of the floats - all carved by the artist Alfred Taasi (Tasi) of Gupuna village, Santa Ana Island. They now belong to the Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.
Both flying fish and garfish have, thus, apparently been retrieved using carved floats. They are two different species of fish but related both in broad classification terms as well as associated behavior. Both belong to the Beloniformes order of fishes (Wikipedia), and both exhibit traits which distinguished them from other fish. Flying fish, for example, can "make powerful self- propelled leaps out of the water where their long wing-like forms enable gliding for considerable distances above the water's surfaces….to escape from underwater predators...e.g. swordfish, mackerel, tuna…though their periods of flight expose them to attack by avian predators such as frigate birds..." (Wikipedia, reference to Beloni species of flying fish in the Russell and Solomon Islands and for a video of the flying fish, see under Wikipedia, Flying Fish and Garfish, Solomon Islands).
The long, narrow garfish also could leap suddenly (and dramatically) into the air and with their rows of tiny teeth, pierce fishing nets and other objects (cf. Whitley 1947:169-73). Garfish, in particular, played major mythological roles as weapons of supernatural spirits of the sea (ataro ni matawa) who, because of their clan-associated powers of social control, were not infrequent subjects of representation on fishing floats, on the walls and at the entrance to socially important (and, therefore, decorated) canoe houses, on sea-going canoes, and on boys' malaohu initiation platforms. Always they were associated with specific clans. Garfish were regarded both as weapons and as messengers of sea spirits (Fox 1925: 124-5, 273; Ivens 1927:199-207). Accordingly, sea spirits constituted one subject for carved floats, and these same powerful spirits may also have been the ultimate recipients of the fish that were caught on these expeditions during ceremonies constituting the "opening of the fishing season" recorded by Ivens at Sa'a, Malaita (Ivens ibid, 311).
This paper examines floats depicted by Ivens as well as floats now in museum collections. Occasional returns to Ivens further contextualizes the floats now in museums. Hopefully, this study will reveal the manner in which not only the iconic identity but the artistic quality of the floats combined to produce their systemic or instrumental function in fishing, in other words, their instrumentality. To return to the Ivens diagram (Image 2), the bird at the far left labeled manu (bird) is represented by a number of floats in museums (e.g. images 3,4). They are outstanding for their beauty: curving body terminating in a small head with sharp beak and counter-balanced by a tall upswept tail. In form, they replicate the birds rendered on the prows of ceremonial canoes.
Bird float, San Cristobal (Makira), Brenchley 1865. British Museum Oc 2158. Length of float 76cm; 1ength of figure 18 cm
Bird float, Ulawa. Collected Rev. B. Comins. British Museum Oc+2017. Length 73 cm. Length of figure 18 2/5 cm
The long-necked Ao bird noted at the far right of the diagram, is the white egret and is represented by a few floats in collections but it appears to be secondary in importance to the remaining birds (manu).
Sea spirits, ataro ni matawa, though not present in the diagram, constitute one of the major categories of floats in collections with different island provenances and is also the principal type represented on contemporary line floats. (e.g. contemporary sea spirit float carvings, Aboriginal and Pacific Art Gallery, Waterloo, NSW, Wikipedia). The controlling social power and complexity of sea spirits among people living in pre-Christian eastern imagery probably accounts for the popularity of these float images. (cf. Ivens 1927 and Fox 1925).
Sea spirit floats range from the early example collected in 1865 by Brenchley (British Museum 6317—image 1), which exhibits a typical skeletal character and its vehicle, a miniature canoe, to several whose heads are constituted by flying fish and which may hold smaller flying fish (probably garfish, known as the weapons of sea spirits) (e.g. Field Museum 276883, Otago Museum D22.399) (Figures 5, 6); the latter image sits in a miniature canoe, as does the Brenchley example. Like flying fish and garfish, sea spirit images on floats have their parallels in carvings once attached to ceremonial houses (e.g. image from San Cristobal, British Museum Oc1904-6-21.14).
Sea spirit float, Field Museum, Chicago, 76883. Fuller collection. Malaita. Collected by J. Holmes 1911-12. Length 88.5 cm., length of figure 28.9 cm.
Sea spirit float, Otago Museum D22.399, Ulawa. Presented by Ivens, 1927. Length 77.4 cm. Length of figure 34 cm.
Many floats in museum collections display images of diving garfish. One particularly beautiful example, removed from the stick portion of its float, comprises the fish with upswept tail and curving body taking a form reminiscent of a fishhook. The float, (Sydney E63941) was acquired by its donor, D. W. Dawbin, from among Lau people living in Walande, South Malaita Island. Although the float was allegedly obtained from south Malaita, it need not be automatically assumed to have been carved there. (Cf. Note 2). The powerful independence of the garfish rendered at one time atop the stick which bore the bait beneath the water, is stylistically paralleled in other floats from, for example, Santa Ana. An example in the Solomon Islands National Museum (76.1910) exhibits a three-dimensionally rendered garfish balanced on the tips of his tail fin atop the float. Both carvings (Australian Museum and Solomon Islands National Museum) wed the beauty of form and shell inlay with the power of the fish, conveying the weaponized power of a garfish, a principal weapon of sea fish and deemed necessary for successful fishing.
Club float, Field Museum 276882, Fuller Collection. from near Sa'a Malaita. Collected by Holmes. Length 87.5 cm
One float now in a museum (Field Museum 276882) collected at S'a, Malaita (collector notes, A. W. F. Fuller) takes the form of still another weapon - a man's club (cf. Bernatzik 1936: pl. ’25) (Figure 7). The visual character of this club - a flat elongated form ending in a sharp point - is totally different from the other float images but, conceptually, as the possession of a powerful chief, and, thus, a power signifier, it belongs with the rest of the floats. Conru describes the photograph originally published by Bernatzik as representing “A chief warrior in festival costume carrying weapons and wearing a shell gorget. Gupuna village, Owa Raha island" (Conru 2002).
Ritual/social interactions among the easternmost Solomon Islands explain why the Solomon Islander who possessed this float as well as others, (e.g. Field Museum 276883) was apparently a venerable chief but not from Santa Ana. According to A.W.F. Fuller's notes (he had obtained the floats from the initial collector J. Holmes who, in turn, obtained them from the owner in 1911-12, "an old chief named Watte who owned a lot of land around Sa'a. This specimen 'Field Museum 276882] has been used a great deal, not only by Watte, but by the friends to whom he lent it." Once again, Mead is the referent who has explained in detail, with accompanying maps, the ritual and commercial links that linked Sa'a with Ulawa and, by extension, the other islands.
Nine floats in the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, were carved by artist Tasi of Gupuna village, Santa Ana specifically at the request of anthropologist William Davenport for the museum collection. Unlike other floats in the museum collection, this group had never functioned in the customary way as means of baiting flying fish or garfish. Their primary purpose was a collection-related function of the museum. Images of these floats appeared on the front and back covers of an edition of the museum journal Expedition (vol.12, no.2, 1968). As cover illustrations, images of the floats framed articles by Davenport and other scholars. This was a unique function for fishing floats; they had never been used to catch fish.
Tasi (also spelled Taasi) was also the artist who carved the eleven floats from Santa Ana, given by Mead to the Waikato Museum. Some of the subjects are similar to those already mentioned, e.g. sea spirits and flying fish, but others differ, e.g. Hanaongo (leaf of mangrove tree) and Guaaongo, fruit of mangrove tree. Two others depict parts of birds: a bird's wing, Gaparanamanu) and a bird's feather (Funamanu).
Much more can be said about fishing floats in museum collections. A float collected in 1929 by E. Paravicini for the Kulturen Museum, Basel (Vb 7131), for example, represents the shark spirit Karemanua (cf. Note l). Another in the Auckland War Memorial Museum allegedly depicts a praying mantis. The topic, in short, is quite a bit larger than the early descriptions and Ivens' diagram indicate. The study of fishing floats can be augmented by more detailed study of floats in museum collections but, in particular, by filling in certain gaps. A major one would be a photograph of a group of floats tied together, floating in the water awaiting fish who would snare their bait. Is there such a photograph? Other matters should include: who determined the choice of floats to be utilized - quite likely the local presiding chief but that has never been stated. And when floats were not in use but were being stored in a decorated canoe house, were they ever shown to young boys during the period when they were secluded in a sacred canoe house for periods of initiation into adulthood when they became fishermen of bonito? Much more needs to be known about the carvers of floats (admittedly, an impossible task for older floats). Tasi, carver of the floats for Davenport and the University Museum, apparently was a major one. It was the creative power of these artists that contributed to the instrumentality of the fishing floats. The topic definitely merits expansion.
Note 1
Karemanua (Kareimenu) was a spirit figure represented visually as having the upper body of a shark and human legs. His origins were on Santa Ana island near the pesent-day village of Nafinuatoga. He belonged to the Pagewa sub-lineage. The Karemanua story involved violence, a characteristic origin of many sea spirits, who customarily originated from the blood of a dying man (cf. Davenport 1999: 8-11). Karemanua's story was different. In brief, he and his brother Kakafu while swimming began to imitate sharks. Kakakfu criticized his brother's imitation powers, whereby Karemanua attacked him and bit him in two. In subsequent portions of the story, Karemanua swam away from Ulawa, returning after ten days to steal food; he gradually lost his human features and became totally shark. On or near Ulawa island he encountered and eventually cured a man of elephantiasis, ultimately becoming his spirit guardian. Gradually, he became a guardian spirit for people on Ulawa, Uki, Santa Ana and Santa Catalina islands, but especially Ulawa (Fox 1925:74-5; Mead 1973: 224-6).
Although usually represented as a standing shark man in all sizes, there are a few exceptions, notably a house post carved by artist Nimanima of Gupuna village, Santa Ana that represents Karemanua in the act of killing his brother (Davenport 1968:11). A fish casket collected on the voyage of the French ship "Corrigane" in 1935 also appears to reference Karemanua as a shark holding his brother in his jaws (Musee Branly 71.1961.103. 56; Waite 2014:308-9).
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