This contemporary drua (double-hulled sailing canoe) was commissioned as a heritage project in Fiji to encourage the retention of canoe-building skills. Joji Marau Misaele managed the project in Fiji with the drua building team—carvers and mat-sail-makers—originally from the islands of Ogea and Vulaga in the Lau region. The team harvested trees from the forests on Ogea and completed the canoe, which has no metal components, using traditional tools, fiber lashings, and shells.

Artist James Glen Wilson visited Fiji three times with the Pacific Survey of the Royal Navy on the HMS Herald, 1854–57.

This type of stone adze was used across the region to fell trees and dress timber for house and canoe construction prior to the introduction of metal blades in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

c. 1000 BCE

The Lapita people arrive first from the west; continuing population movements and migrations thereafter
 

c. AD 1000

Voyagers sail east from western Polynesia to settle the rest of Polynesia; continuing periodic arrivals from the west and regular interactions with Tonga and Samoa
 

1643

The Dutchman Abel Tasman visits Tonga
 

1774

James Cook visits Vatoa in southern Lau, Fiji

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In GDGDA Tacita Dean captures Mehretu working in her studio, offering spectators a glimpse into a practice that is often shrouded and solitary. The camera looks over Mehretu’s shoulder as she works deliberately and intensely on Mural, a monumental corporate commission, in Lower Manhattan; “GDGDA” translates to “wall” or “mural” in Amharic, one of the Semitic languages of Ethiopia.