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kennedy : ellice islands, 1930

Donald Gilbert Kennedy : Ellice Islands Field Notes, 1930.

Kennedy, Donald Gilbert: Field Notes on the Culture of Vaitupu, Ellice Islands.
The Journal of Polynesian Society
Volume 39 Number 1.
No. 153, March 1930, pages 111 to 113.
New Plymouth, New Zealand.
Printed for the Society by Thomas Avery.

Kennedy, Donald Gilbert: Field Notes on the Culture of Vaitupu, Ellice Islands.
The Journal of Polynesian Society
Volume 38 Number 4.
No. 152, December 1929, Plate 14 Figure 68 and Plate 15 Figure 69.
New Plymouth, New Zealand.
Printed for the Society by Thomas Avery.

Introduction.
Kennedy identifies two types of surf-riding (te seke) on page 112.
These are a form of body-surfing (faka-tua-fonu) or using a board; on occasion the puke, the shaped bow-covering of the canoe.

In 1841, Charles Wilkes reported that on the Kingsmill Group (the Gilbert Islands):

In swimming in the surf, they have a small board like that used by the Sandwich Islanders.

Also note the illustrations of surfboard riders released as postage stamps in 1980 by Tokelau, a dependent territory of New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean, below.

To the west of Tokelau and about 140 miles (220 klms) south, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands were a British protectorate from 1892, a colony from 1916 to 1976, and thereafter the separate countries of Kiribati and Tuvalu.

Kennedy's Field Notes were published as supplements over several editions of the The Journal of Polynesian Society, beginning in 1929.
Only the text describing aquatic sports, taken from his notes on native games and published in 1930, are included here.
The photographs of local variations in canoe construction, illustrating several bow covers, are from the previous edition, published in 1929.

Volume 39 Number 1, 1930.
GAMES.
Page 111

4. TE UKUUKU AVA (Diving in the ava).
At low tide two teams proceed to the edge of the reef and select an ava (i.e. a V-shaped indentation in the reef) the bottom of which is about two fathoms deep.
One team stands on one side of the indentation (ngutu o te ava) and the other team on the other side. A mark, such as a coloured piece of coral, is pointed out on the bottom

Page 112

and is called te umu (lit. the oven).
One side, by arrangement, becomes te kau leoleo o te umu (the team to guard the oven) and the other side, te kau e muli (the hiding side), so called because of the resemblance this game bears to that of hide and seek (tumuli) played ashore.

All dive in at once and swim to the bottom.
The guards of the oven take up a position on one side of te umu and near to it.
The other team take up a position on the other side but further off.
Members of this team now wait until some of the weaker guards have been forced to ascend for air.
They then attempt to touch and cling to te umu.
It is the duty of the guards to seize any arm reaching towards te umu, and a player who has been so seized by a guard must ascend and consider himself out of the game until the next general dive (uku).
If one or more players of the kau e muli succeed in evading the guards and manage to touch te umu, they all ascend to their respective positions above on the edge, and the kau e muli team claims a point.

On the next general dive the same guards must again do duty.
If, however, the guards succeed in preventing any member of the kau e muli from touching te umu, their team changes position with the other and on the next dive they have their opportunity of making a point.
All young people of both sexes play this game.

5. TE SEKE (Surf-riding).
There are two methods:-
(a) Faka-tua-fonu (turtle-back fashion).
With arms outstretched and legs spread or with hands pressed down between the thighs.
(b) Using the puke (the puke is really the shaped bow-covering of the canoe, which is often used for surf riding, but the same name is applied to any board so used.)

6. TU KIMOA (After the fashion of rats).
Played in two or more fathoms of water in an ava at the edge of the outer reef, or in the lagoon.
One player dives down and places his feet on the papa (rock bottom).
Another player dives and sets his feet on the shoulders of the first player, who steadies him by grasping the ankles and holding the feet firmly on his shoulders.
The next player takes a similar position on the shoulders

Page 113

of the second player and so on until one player is standing ,with his head above water.
When the bottom section of this human ladder is out of breath, he lowers the feet from his shoulders to the bottom in front of him and, ascending, takes his place as top section where he can breathe.
The next player does likewise and so on, the sections continually circulating after the manner of rats running round a room, hence the name tu kimoa.This game is played by young people of both sexes.

7. FAI TINO.
Small children often have competitions moulding the human figure in the wet sand on the reef at low tide.
This seems to be a recognised game, and when all have finished they usually indicate their choice as to the most perfect model, and the proud maker is called the winner.

Volume 38 Number 4, 1929.
CANOES.

Plate 14 Figure 68.
Vaitupu type
bow and stern covers
(the stern covers are on the left).

Plate 15 Figure 69.
Namumea type
bow and stern covers
(the stern covers are on the left).

The Journal of Polynesian Society
Volume 39 Number 1.
No. 153, March 1930.

The Journal of Polynesian Society
Volume 38 Number 4.
No. 152, December 1929.

New Plymouth, New Zealand.
Printed for the Society by Thomas Avery.

Gilbert and Ellice Islands Postage Stamp [SG 45], 1939-1965.
Contributed to www.stampboards.com by aardvark, who noted:
SG 45 was printed by De La Rue and depicts a native canoe crossing a reef.
The Gilbert and Ellice Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, were a British protectorate from 1892 and a colony from 1916 to 1976.
Since independence the Gilbert Islands have been part of Kiribati, and the Ellice Islands are now known as Tuvalu.
This gorgeous set of engraved definitive stamps was first issued in January 1939 and the same designs (with George VI later replaced by Elizabeth II) remained in use until 1965, when they were replaced by much less attractive lithographed designs.
The stamps were engraved by very talented anonymous staff engravers.
The set was engraved and printed by the three main British Empire/Commonwealth stamp printers: Bradbury Wilkinson, Waterlow, and De La Rue.

Engraved Stamp Beauties, viewed 17 may 2014.
http://www.stampboards.com/

Tokelau: Water Sports, 1980, SG73-76
Postage Stamp
Noted by Hervé Manificat in the Surf Blurb, April 2019.
Tokelau is a dependent territory of New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean.

Highly interesting illustrations with unusual prone surfboards,
possibly a puke, the shaped bow-covering for a canoe.

surfresearch.com.au

Geoff Cater (2010-2019) : Donald Kennedy : Ellice Islands Field Notes, 1930.
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1930_Kennedy_Ellice_Islands.html