The lift will be out of service until Friday 28 June while we work on a replacement.
Plaited ear stick covered with red and yellow orchid stem fibre binding
Bamboo-stick ornament for the ear, patterned with plaited vine-strip of red and yellow. This type of ear ornament, worn usually in a hole in the earlobe, is characteristic of Malaita, known in Kwara'ae language as 'patterned bamboo' (fa'i 'au gwaroa) or 'reed' (fa'i rade). The red is coconut-frond cuticle stained with Indian Mulberry (Morinda), the yellow is orchid stem, see Burt, Akin and Kaw’ioloa, 2009, 86-87.
These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.
The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.
If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk
