A New Idea re Weapons of Oceania and a Poll

[Ian]

I have been talking with the owner of this site, Dr Lee Jones, and the other Moderators about a new focus on weapons of the indigenous peoples of Australasia, Melanesia, Polynesia, Micronesia, etc., who make up the Pacific region referred to as Oceania. There is relatively little information about these weapons to be found on this Forum and not much more online.

My interest in raising this subject is that following my return to Australia in 2018, I have seen many more of these weapons and observed a number of auctions where old collections are being broken up and sold. The variety of weapons coming on to the market recently has been impressive. This provides an opportunity to archive examples of the weapons as a resource for members here and the wider online audience, and to raise interest in them.

My proposal is to create a series of "Museum Pages" to document Oceanic weapons by country and by type of weapon. These pages would be for information only and not for discussion. Should members wish to discuss items on the "Museum Pages," they could create a new thread for that purpose, referencing or linking to the item on the particular Museum Page. An index of the various "Museum Pages" would appear as a "sticky thread" near the top of the Ethno Forum page.

To set this up would require a lot of work and time. I'm willing to do that, provided there is sufficient interest from the membership of this site. Hence, a poll to assess that level of interest.

Ian.