Statue of A'a from Rurutu

Statue of A'a from Rurutu

The A'a Idol from Rurutu in the British Museum
Material	Wood
Size	1.17 metres high
Created	Late eighteenth century AD
Present location	British Museum, London
Registration	AOA LMS 19

The Statue of A'a from Rurutu is a famous wooden sculpture of the god A'a that was made on the Pacific island of Rurutu in the Austral archipelago. The idol was given to English missionaries in the early nineteenth century as the local population converted to Christianity. It was eventually acquired by the British Museum in 1911.^[1]

Provenance

The wooden figure of A'a was made on the island of Rurutu in the late eighteenth century. A'a was one of the principal deities worshiped on the island, one of the Austral Islands that now form part of French Polynesia. Europeans started visiting the islands in the early nineteenth century, as part of the colonisation of territories in the Pacific. This went hand-in-hand with mass conversion of the population to Christianity. In 1821, A'a was given to missionaries from the London Missionary Society based on the island of Ra'iatea, as a symbol of the islanders' conversion to Christianity.^[2] From 1890, the LMS loaned much of their collection of Polynesian art to the British Museum, and in 1911 the Museum acquired the sculpture.^[3]

Description

The hollow figure of the god is carved from wood. According to the oral histories of Rurutu, it is the wood of the pua keni keni (Fagraea berteriana) that is native to islands in the eastern Pacific. However, tests conducted in 2015 suggested that the figure is in fact made from sandalwood, possibly Santalum insulare.^[4] Shown standing upright, the figure has a large cavity in the back that originally contained twenty-four statuettes, that were destroyed in 1882. All around the body and head are carved in high relief small anthropomorphic figurines. The exact meaning of the idol has been interpreted by scholars in many different ways, but there is as yet no clear consensus on the matter. The A'a image has inspired many artists since being displayed at the museum, including Henry Moore and William Empson.

See also

• Hoa Hakananai'a
• Deity Figure from Rarotonga
• Mangareva Statue

Further reading

• J. Harding, 'A Polynesian god and the missionaries', Tribal Arts (Winter 1994), pp. 27–32
• A. Gell, Art and agency: an anthropology theory (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1998)
• W.B. Fagg, The tribal image: wooden figure sculpture of the world (London, The British Museum Press, 1970)
• M. Caygill, The British Museum A-Z Companion, 1999

References

1. British Museum Highlights
2. Adams, Julie; Hooper, Steven; Nuku, Maia (2016). A'a: A Deity from Polynesia. London: The British Museum Press. pp. 10–14.
3. Adams, Julie; Hooper, Steven; Nuku, Maia (2016). A'a: A Deity from Polynesia. London: The British Museum Press. pp. 15–16.
4. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=502783&partId=1