Native Pacific Art and Music, Polynesian art, Hawaii, Maori, Samoa, Papau New Guinea

Artefacts from the Pacific were not considered art by their creators, but were an integral part of the religious and social ceremony of everyday island life.

Art objects include ancestor figures, canoe-prow ornaments, ceremonial shields, masks, stone carvings, decorated human skulls, pottery, and stools.

Fertility is a recurrent theme, along with occasional references to head hunting and ritual cannibalism.

Melanesian art is the most striking of all because of its decorative brilliance and imaginative ornament.

Associated with ancestor and spirit cults, headhunting, and cannibalism, it is typified by exaggerated natural forms with prominent sexual motifs.

Ritual masks made for use in the islands’ elaborate festivals are both colourful and disturbing. Many of the carved figures are demonic in appearance,

Polynesian art is more decorative than that of Melanesia, characterised by the feather work of Hawaii, the highly patterned surface ornament of the Maori carvers of New Zealand, and the living art of tattooing.

Traditionally, cult objects were made to contain or conduct a supernatural power.

Micronesian art typically combines extreme functional simplicity with a high-quality finish. Surface decoration is rare.