History, art and art history

'Less is known of Austral Islands traditional culture than of almost any other Polynesian group. Missionary proselytizing and introduced diseases were so efficient that the main legacy of this period is in the objects that survive.'                                                                                                                                                                    Steven Phelps Hooper 1976

What started as a research paper became this incredible, lavishly illustrated book, self published by the author Rhys Richards. It is in three parts: Part I is a sequence of comments made by the earliest European visitors; Part II provides a selection of colour photos of Austral Islands artefacts held in museums and private collections around the world; Part III has art history essays about specific artefacts, such as the exquisitely carved 'paddles' and rare tapa cloths, and their contexts within the wider Pacific.

This book brings items traded and collected that became scattered across the world, together in a comprehensive survey and appreciation for the exquisite works of the Austral Islands. They sit between 'French Polynesia' to the North East and the 'Southern Cook Islands' to the North West. They are closely connected to Tahiti through ancestral and patronage bonds. Tupaia, the sage and mentor of Captain Cook, showed them on the map he described for Cook in 1769 and visited one of the islands with Cook's first expedition, heralding the beginning of European contact. 

Soft Cover, 236 pages