Kanak war club

Traditional hardwood clubs used by the Kanak tribes of New Caledonia

A Kanak war club is a traditional weapon (mace) of the Kanak tribes of New Caledonia.

Uses

Usually cut from a hardwood type of iron wood, gaiac or kohu^[1] they were used for war. Like all the Pacific clubs, their forms were of a very wide variety and specific to each country and each purpose.^[2] They were found in phallic form, but also in the form of a fungus or a bird’s beak.^[3] Their striking head consisted of a root knot.^[4] These weapons were originally decorated with plants, human hair, or cloths, and were wielded with one or two hands.^[5]

Oceanian art specialist Roger Boulay makes a distinction between a mace, that is "an object whose percussion point is in the axis of the handle" and a club, that is "an object whose percussion point is shifted in relation to this axis".

The Kanak called the "bird beak" club a "turtle beak".^[6]

Gallery

Kanak warriors holding clubs
Kanak mace with fungus head
Kanak mace fungus type
Bird's beak club
Kanak bird's beak club
Phallic mace
Kanak Mace

References

^ La 1ère Nouvelle-Calédonie
^ Susan Cochrane, Max Quanchi, Hunting the Collectors: Pacific Collections in Australian Museums, Art … Oxford Scholars Publishing
^ Gustave Regelsperger, L'Océanie française: la Nouvelle-Calédonie, les Nouvelles-Hébrides, les établissements français de l'Océanie, Édition Notre Domaine Colonial, 1922, p.15
^ Fergus Clunie, Fijian Weapons & Warfare, 2003, p. 136-7 et 142
^ La 1ère Nouvelle-Calédonie
^ Éliane Métais, Art Neo Caledonien, p.19

Bibliography

John Charles Edler, Terence Barrow, Art of Polynesia, Hemmeter Publishing Corporation, 1990.
Roger Boulay, Casse-Tête et Massues Kanak, 2015.
Adrienne L. Kaeppler, Douglas Newton, Harry N. Abrams, Oceanic Art, 1997.
Michael Gunn, William Teel, From the South Seas: Oceanic Art in the Teel Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MFA Publications, 2006.
André Breton, Arts primitifs, Camels Cohen, 2002.
De jade et de nacre: patrimoine artistique kanak : Catalogue, Musée territorial de Nouvelle-Calédonie, Nouméa, mars-mai 1990, Musée national des arts africains et océaniens, Paris, octobre 1990-janvier 1991.

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