Te mwae

Te mwae. Neck ornament. This is a made of four material components: te kora (coconut sennit fibre cordage), te moromoro (beads), te buangui (whale tooth) and te bure (egg cowries shell; caulis, collipara). A double band of fine two-ply kora has been used to form the neck band. Te buangi has been carved to form short pendants that begin cylindrical and then taper into a point. A small circular perforation has been drilled into the wider base end where the kora has been threaded through. A pattern of te moromoro otherwise known as european trade beads has been organised like so: either one or two white, one red, two green, one red and then one or two white between each te buangi pendant. They have been threaded onto each band of kora then together through the te buangi pendants. The fastened ends of the mwae (Neck ornament) begin with a singular te buangi which then doubles towards the centre piece. The fastened knot has also been finished with a series of larger te moromoro: one band made up of three in a transparent light blue, mid blue and red colour. The other band made of four: two in a mid blue, another two in a light transparent blue, a yellow one then a red one. The centre of the mwae features two te bura in two different sizes. They are bulbous and of a matte off-white colour. Several red te moromoro feature between the two. This te mwae featured two names on its ethnology card: Te mwae ae Kingkingaki and Te Manawa. The latter described as the two te bure would rest on the pit of the stomach.

Other Name

Neck ornament (English)

Place

Beru/Gilbert Islands/Kiribati

Accession Number

1936.295

Accession Date

1936

Other Id

22939 (ethnology)

22 (Maude Collection)

Department

Pacific