Julie's visit

The November holidays were an exciting time for us. We were lucky enough to have Julie Adams visiting us, curator of Oceanian objects at the British Museum. She was invited to Rurutu by our association Te Aru Ora, and sponsored by Air Tahiti. She made the detour whilst in the Pacific, after spending several weeks in New Zealand, as part of the events marking the 250 years of contact between Europeans and Maori. She was specifically involved in preparing an exhibition of taonga (ancient sacred objects), some of which were collected by Cook's expeditions, at the Tairawhiti Museum in Gisborne (take a look at the exhibition). Is seems like a very appropriate way to celebrate the event to me.

We have been in contact for several years, Julie was responsible for organizing the A'a Object in Focus exhibition back in 2016, and since then we've often talked about trying to meet. Finally it happened! She is also working with the Museum de Tahiti et des Iles on various projects. We're hoping that one of them might just bring A'a back to French Polynesia for a while.

Whilst in Rurutu she gave a short talk about some of the Austral Islands objects that can be found in British museums, it was a fascinating opportunity for many Rurutu to see images of the objects and talk about their incredible cultural heritage. Of course A'a was a focus, but there are lots of other amazing objects, including shell necklaces made with cords of finely woven hair...

...and this amazing stool/headrest that is most likely from the Australs.

We even got to see the piece of tapa that the Endeavour's crew obtained while it was anchored off Rurutu in 1769.