Historians, artists, anthropologists and members of the indigenous communities consider contemporary perspectives on Cook’s voyages and examine their legacy.
The art of Oceania
No one knows exactly how the people of Nan Madol created this royal capital made of giant stones.
Nan Madol: “In the space between things”
Making do with local materials, the I-Kiribati tailored armor from coconut fiber and wore porcupine-fish helmets.
Kiribati armor
After a century in storage, this “Whale Rider” got a visit from his descendants—and received a token of their love.
Paikea at the American Museum of Natural ...
These giant statues embody the ancients who first voyaged to Rapa Nui. Many were toppled; all lost their coral eyes.
Voyage to the moai of Rapa Nui ...
This photograph commemorates a historic royal visit and captures the practice of Fijian gift exchange.
Presentation of Fijian Mats and Tapa Cloths ...
Master sailors fashioned these maps from sticks and cowrie shells, registering relationships between land and sea.
Navigation Chart, Marshall Islands
These intricate wooden carvings have confused anthropologists and confounded art historians for over a century.
The Life of Malagan
This virtuosic carving represents a creator god. It is one of the finest pieces of Polynesian sculpture in the West.
Rurutu figure known as A’a
Islanders grew fruit trees and used the wood to carve figures. This one depicts Ku, the “land snatcher.”
Polynesia, an introduction
The small-scale societies of these islands became famous in the West for their ceremonial wooden carvings.
Melanesia, an introduction
The god of war rules the world outside these sacred spaces, but inside, peace and calm prevail.
Maori meeting house
Collected from Papua New Guinea in the 1880s, this figure would otherwise have been destroyed after its ritual use.
Malagan at the British Museum
Hawaiian nobility donned these “red garments” in ceremonies and battle and later gave them to Europeans as gifts.
Feather cape
This “lost or stolen friend” left Easter Island in 1869. Carved of dense volcanic rock, it towers over the viewer.
Easter Island Moai
This spectacular necklace pairs human hair with a sperm-whale tooth. Chiefs wore it to assert their divine right.
Necklace (Lei Niho Palaoa), Hawai’i
Ignore the Western name—spinning this object opened a channel of communication between ancestral and human realms.
Fly Whisk (Tahiri), Austral Islands
These datable potsherds offer clues to travel and trade in the central Pacific, or “sea of islands.”
Terracotta fragments, Lapita people
Master carvers produced statues like these when village leaders needed to bring their community back into balance.
Bis Poles at The Metropolitan Museum of ...
This intriguing artifact has a 3,500-year history. The latest chapter? A political debate over cultural heritage.
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