Usually cut from a hardwood type of
iron wood,
gaiac or
kohu[1] they were used for war. Like all the Pacific
clubs, their forms were of a very wide variety and specific to each country and each purpose.[2] They were found in
phallic form, but also in the form of a
fungus or a bird’s beak.[3] Their striking head consisted of a root knot.[4] These weapons were originally decorated with plants, human hair, or cloths, and were wielded with one or two hands.[5]
Oceanian art specialist Roger Boulay makes a distinction between a mace, that is "an object whose percussion point is in the axis of the handle" and a club, that is "an object whose percussion point is shifted in relation to this axis".
The Kanak called the "bird beak" club a "turtle beak".[6]
^Susan Cochrane,
Max Quanchi, Hunting the Collectors: Pacific Collections in Australian Museums, Art … Oxford Scholars Publishing
^Gustave Regelsperger, L'Océanie française: la Nouvelle-Calédonie, les Nouvelles-Hébrides, les établissements français de l'Océanie, Édition Notre Domaine Colonial, 1922, p.15
^Fergus Clunie, Fijian Weapons & Warfare, 2003, p. 136-7 et 142
De jade et de nacre: patrimoine artistique kanak : Catalogue, Musée territorial de Nouvelle-Calédonie, Nouméa, mars-mai 1990, Musée national des arts africains et océaniens, Paris, octobre 1990-janvier 1991.