The Island Warrior: Coconut Fibre Armour from Kiribati (4 April – 25 September 2017)

ARCHIVED EXHIBITION

Spotlight Gallery, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge.

Co-curated by Dr Ali Clark, and Rachel Howie

A black and white photo of a man wearing armour from Kiribati

    One of the senior students at Rongorongo training college, Beru.

    Photographed by Reverend George Hubert Eastman, pre 1925.

    MAA P.4912.ACH1

This exhibition focused on the extraordinary suits of armour made in the small islands of Kiribati, in the Pacific Ocean, throughout the 19th century.

By looking closely at the armour, we were able to discover how these complex objects were made, worn and used. Other objects on display explored the contemporary relevance of this armour to I-Kiribati people today. The display also included a new suit of armour made especially for the Museum by artists Kaetaeta Watson, Lizzy Leckie and Chris Charteris. This new suit of armour is the first Kiribati armour to be made in 45 years.

The research leading to this exhibition has received funding from the European Research Council project Pacific Presences [http://pacificpresences.maa.cam.ac.uk] under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme, grant agreement no.324146]11.