Representing the Pacific at international exhibitions 1851-1940

Abstract

The international exhibitions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries served as a series of stages upon which, among other things, carefully screened images of the islands of the Pacific were presented to a largely Euroamerican metropolitan audience. These representations or re-constructions served a number of functions which were by no means static. As the imperial powers engaged in the quantification of colonial resources, the colonies of the Pacific were catalogued in terms of the existing taxonomies of the West. Many of the earlier conceptions or mythologies of the 'South Seas' were reinforced through these representations, while others were challenged to suit not only the interests of the imperial powers but also of the colonial settler societies competing for emigrants, investment, tourism, and other financial and legitimising support. Cross-cultural encounters were geographically transposed and replayed on other beaches, and in some cases peoples of Oceania were afforded significant input into the ways in which their worlds were represented. At the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, for example, a 'Samoan Village and South Sea Islands Theatre' was situated in the entertainment zone. Here performers engaged in theatre and were themselves objects of display. In contrast, people from Fiji were less likely to be displayed, the colonial authorities instead striving to present and convey an image based on the economic potential of the islands as measured through 'progress'. New Zealand's shifting representations at international, and particularly at British imperial exhibitions, provide a case study of the participation of an Australasian colony, and later dominion, at these events. While the primary focus of these exhibitions was on trade, it was predominantly the use of the unique natural environment - the geothermal wonders and the Moa for instance - and the use of Maori people and cultural objects in these displays, that enabled the construction of a distinctive and appealing identity. This P was deemed essential in order to distinguish New Zealand from the other Australasian colonies. As with Fiji 'progress' was to become a crucial factor in the country's displays, as the exhibitions provided an opportunity for the telling and re-telling of histories.