RERAMIC STUDIO 
FIJI POTTERY 
Randolph I. Geare 
THE Fiji or Viti group, which passed under the sway of 
Great Britain in 1874, comprises about two hundred and 
twenty -five reef-bound islands. Only two are of any con- 
siderable size, namely, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. 
Travellers have often recorded their astonishment at 
finding in these islands pronounced evidences of artistic skill, 
and this is the more svirprising as the inhabitants of neighboring 
groups seem to be destitute of any tendencj^ of the kind. 
Thus in the Navigator Islands,there seems to be no manufacture 
of pottery even of the rudest description. Nor can this be 
accounted for bj'' the absence of suitable clays, as these last 
mentioned islands possess material eminently adapted to the 
making of pottery. One explorer in the Fiji islands, referring 
especialty to the native pottery, writes, "I was constantly 
struck with the originality of their patterns, the fertility of 
their inventions, and the ingenuity with which they were ap- 
plied to the object to be decorated." The native Fiji pottery 
is therefore to be highly commended, and considering the 
coarseness of the materials used and the rude manner in which 
it is fashioned, and also that the people are such as the civi- 
lized world has been accustomed to regard as mere savages, 
one cannot fail to be deeply impressed by the artistic beauty 
and great variety of the forms produced. 
The pottery of Fiji is always made by the women, and is 
hand-made. The potter exercises her sweet will as to the size, 
form and ornamentation of the object. Some of the jars are 
more than two feet high, oviform and with large mouths. 
The chief peculiarity about their form is that they are generally 
without a flat base to stand on, the bottom being merely a 
continuation of the curves of the sides. When they are re- 
quired to stand erect, they have to be placed in deep rings of 
plaited grass, and when used for culinary purposes, they are 
placed sideways on the fire. Seemingly, this lack of a base to 
stand on must often have proved very inconvenient, and the 
perpetuation of this awkward form is only another proof of the 
difficulty in getting away from stereotyped customs that have 
been inherited from other regions through preceding genera- 
tions. 
The large pots are used for cooking "dalo", the native 
