LGD - Visual Language: A 19th Century Comet in Fiji

Visual Language
A 19th Century Comet in Fiji

by Mara Jevera Fulmer
Assistant Professor/Program Coordinator in Graphic Design
C.S. Mott Community College, Flint, MI
(Formerly Art Director for The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji)

Historians are fond of saying that Fiji and other similar indigenous cultures have no written history prior to European contact, but depend entirely on their oral traditions. However, on closer examination, the Fijian people offer a visual language that may have been used in the past to record, albeit metaphorically, historical events. Among the Fijian masi (barkcloth) designs, there is one, like the Tongan fetu'u fuka (Leonard & Terrell 1980:30), that appears to represent a comet mentioned in historical accounts of Fiji.

This masikesa from the 1840s may be telling the story
of the three-tailed comet and the "wasting sickness" that
accompanied a shipwreck in the early 19th Century.

The "exploding star" design appears in a masikesa (printed barkcloth) originating in Cakaudrove province and believed to date to around 1840s or earlier (pc Sagale Buadromo, Fiji Museum registrar). The star appears to have its centre unpainted while many large points come out from the circumference of the blank inner circle. Then three "tails" (in one instance, a fourth "tail" appears) seem to come out from between the larger star points.As has been reported in various accounts, a particularly dark period in Fiji's early European contact began with the wreck of a ship called the Argo, on Bukatatanoa Reef (which thence became known as Argo Reef in English) near Oneata and Lakeba in the Lau islands. Thought to have occurred some time around 1800 to 1806, the shipwreck is associated with numerous other disasters. The Argo brought with its survivors the "wasting sickness" called lilabalavu, believed to be Asian Cholera, that killed a large portion of the population of Fiji. It has been said that in that same year a comet was seen with "three trails". In historical texts, the shipwreck and ensuing sickness have also been associated with a total eclipse of the sun, a hurricane, and a tidal wave.In researching the history of this mysterious shipwreck and the related comet, I discovered many conflicting reports on the type and origin of the ship involved, as well as dates for the possible comet and solar eclipse. On the following pages is a summary of the various historical accounts, followed by my own conclusions on the matter.

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This article was originally published as "Visual Language: A 19th Century Example" in Domodomo, Vol. 10, No. 2, 1996, a scholarly journal of the Fiji Museum.