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Collections Online

Collections record

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ornament

human history

Images and documents

Artefact

  • Credit Line
    Collection of Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, 1925.76, 8326.4
  • Public Access Text

    Pacific cultures chose particular types of feathers to decorate the body and artefacts, partly for their appearance but sometimes because of the associations and symbolism attributed to certain birds and their behaviour. Many New Guinea peoples make explicit analogies between their own dances and the display of birds-of-paradise. They also believe that wearing eagle feathers will make the wearer successful in obtaining wealth in the same way that the eagle hunts its prey

  • Cultural Origin

    Niuean

  • Place
    Eastern Polynesia/Polynesia/Pacific
  • Media

    feather/animal material

  • Classification

    Ornament

    Personal Artefacts

  • Last Update
    06 Dec 2018
The development of the Auckland War Memorial Museum online collection is an ongoing process; updates, new images and records are added weekly. In some cases, records have yet to be confirmed by Museum staff, and there could be mistakes or omissions in the information provided.

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