Veiqia, or Weniqia, is a female

tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several Process of tatt ...

ing practice from

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

. Young women received veiqia at

puberty Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy. ...

, often as part of a lengthy process. The tattoos were applied by older specialist women known as ''daubati''. Natural materials were used for the inks and to make the tools, some of which were reserved for use on high status women. The practice was prohibited under

British colonial rule The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

in the nineteenth century, but has undergone revival in the twenty-first century, led by the work of ''The Veiqia Project''. Whilst there is an important archive of veiqia research at the

Fiji Museum The Fiji Museum is a museum in Suva, Fiji located in the capital city's botanical gardens, Thurston Gardens. Background The museum is a statutory body and is under the administration of the Fiji Museum Act and the Preservation of Objects of Arc ...

, western museum collections hold more artefacts relating to the practice.

Description

Veiqia is a traditional form of tattooing that was exclusive to women in

. Typically, once young women had passed the age of puberty, they would receive veiqia, often in the groin and on the buttocks - areas that would normally be covered by a liku (fringed skirt), but also close to the mouth. Marking the pubic area is recorded from the village of Nabukeru, on the island of

Yasawa Yasawa, also called Assawa and Ysava, is the northernmost large island of the Yasawa Group, an archipelago in Fiji's Western Division. Located at 17.00° South and 177.23° East, it covers an area of . It has a maximum altitude of above sea l ...

. Other regional variations limited the veiqia to only the area covered by a liku, for example in Ba and

Rewa Rewa may refer to: Places Fiji * Rewa (Fijian Communal Constituency, Fiji), a former electoral division of Fiji * Rewa Plateau, between the Kaimur and Vindhya Ranges in Madhya Pradesh * Rewa Province, Fiji * Rewa River, the widest river in Fiji ...

; in the highlands of

Viti Levu Viti Levu (pronounced ) is the largest island in the Republic of Fiji. It is the site of the nation's capital, Suva, and home to a large majority of Fiji's population. Geology Fiji lies in a tectonically complex area between the Australian P ...

the veiqia extended to the hips, so the marks would be seen above and below the liku. The veiqia designs were geometric and similar to those printed onto

barkcloth Barkcloth or bark cloth is a versatile material that was once common in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. Barkcloth comes primarily from trees of the family Moraceae, including ''Broussonetia papyrifera'', '' Artocarpus altilis'', ''Artocarpus t ...

or incised onto decorated weapons, such as clubs. The designs are meaningful and express cultural identity through their forms.Jenkinson, P. (2011)
A whales’ tooth from Fiji
. According to

Ritual

The ''dauveiqia'' (also ''daubati'' - tattooists) were expert older women, who were held in high regard in Fijian society. The young woman due to be tattooed had to pay the dauveqia in masi,

tabua A tabua is a polished tooth of a sperm whale that is an important cultural item in Fijian society. They were traditionally given as gifts for atonement or esteem (called ''sevusevu''), and were important in negotiations between rival chiefs. The ...

or liku. Preparations for veiqia varied between regions: near the Wainimala river, no preparation was undertaken, but in Noiemalu district the pelvic areas due to be tattooed were rested for three days before, then the skin was massaged prior to marking. In some areas, special caves called ''qara ni veiqia'' were used as the location for the ritual. The process could take several weeks, or perhaps months, since it was extremely painful. Only once the veiqia for the groin and the buttocks were finished, were designs around the mouth made. Several days after the veiqia was complete, there was a ceremonial feast.

Implements

The implements used showed regional variations. In the Noiemalu district on

the instrument was called an ''bati'' (''mbati'' is an old-fashioned spelling) and was shaped like a very small adze, with the blade made from a lemon tree thorn. A ''wau'' (mallet) made from mbeta wood tapped the back of the ''bati'', which punctured the skin. The handle was made from reed.Jacobs, Karen.
This Is Not a Grass Skirt : On Fibre Skirts (liku) and Female Tattooing (veiqia) in Nineteenth Century Fiji
', Sidestone Press, 2019. Also on Viti Levu, but in the district of the

Wainimala River This is a list of the rivers of Fiji. They are listed by island in clockwise order, starting at the north end of each island. Tributaries are listed under the parent stream. Gau * Wailevu River (Gau) Ovalau *Lovoni River Taveuni *Somosomo ...

, a different approach was taken; there, the skin was punctured and ink made from the Acacia richii was then rubbed into the wound. This was in contrast to other methods, where a blade was dipped in the ink. Other materials used to puncture the skin included barracuda or shark teeth, or a sharp-toothed comb made from bone or turtle shell. In Rewasau, the ink was made from the Kauri pine. An ink made from soot from burnt candlenuts was reserved for women of high social status.

Societal significance

Veiqia was marked onto young women's bodies at the time of

, or sometimes at the onset of

menstruation Menstruation (also known as a period, among other colloquial terms) is the regular discharge of blood and mucosal tissue from the inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized by the rise and fall of hor ...

. It demonstrated that the women were available for marriage and had physically reached sexual maturity. The veiqia, especially at the mouth, might be altered at other stages of women's lives, such as childbirth - the length of the liku would also be extended. Young women from families of the chief would receive the veiqia and the liku when they were older than those of a lower social status. If a woman died who had not received veiqia, at burial her body was painted with designs so that the gods would not punish her in the afterlife.

Mythology

According to one Samoan tradition, it was two women from Fiji who travelled there, beginning the practice of

malu is a word in the Samoan language for a female-specific tattoo of cultural significance. The covers the legs from just below the knee to the upper thighs just below the buttocks, and is typically finer and delicate in design compared to the , t ...

. Legend states that the women were

conjoined twins Conjoined twins – sometimes popularly referred to as Siamese twins – are twins joined ''in utero''. A very rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 49,000 births to 1 in 189,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence ...

Taema Taema is the name of a female figure referred to in different legends in Samoan mythology.
Samoa ...

and

Tilafaiga According to a legend in Samoan mythology Tilafaiga was one of the twin sisters who brought the art of ''tatau'' (Samoan tattoo) to Samoa from Fitiuta in Manu’a. Tilafaiga's twin sister's name is Taema. Tilafaiga and Taema can also be referred t ...

, who were the daughters of Tokilagafanua, the shark-god, and his sister Hinatuafaga, the Moon. In another version, Taema and Tilafaiga travelled to Fiji, where they learnt the art of tattooing from two men Tufou and Filelei, who told them to "tattoo women, but not men", but on the return journey the twins reversed the phrase, leading a tradition of male tattooing in Samoa.

Colonial period

With the introduction of Christianity under British colonial rule, the practice was strongly discouraged, with those bearing the designs reportedly victimised. Fijian women were encouraged to adopt "Christian dress". The practice began to become less common from the 1850s onwards. As reported in the ''

Evening News Evening News may refer to: Television news *''CBS Evening News'', an American news broadcast *''ITV Evening News'', a UK news broadcast *'' JNN Evening News'', a Japanese news broadcast *''Evening News'', an alternate name for '' News Hour'' in so ...

,'' in 1871 five women were fined ten shillings for "tattooing a woman from the mountains". British colonial administrator,

Adolph Brewster Adolph Brewster (1855 – October 1937) was a British colonial administrator in Fiji. Biography Brewster was born Adolph Brewster Joske in Melbourne in 1854, the son of the businessman Paul Joske.Rewa Rewa may refer to: Places Fiji * Rewa (Fijian Communal Constituency, Fiji), a former electoral division of Fiji * Rewa Plateau, between the Kaimur and Vindhya Ranges in Madhya Pradesh * Rewa Province, Fiji * Rewa River, the widest river in Fiji ...

and Mbua in 1870, middle-aged and older women were tattooed, but younger women were not.Men who knew yesterday
''Pacific Islands Monthly'', December 1937, p57 Whilst Brewster described the small elliptical mouth tattoos as "rougeish", he regarded the broader sweeps around the mouth as a "disfigurement". However, it did continue, in secret, in several remote locations until the early twentieth century. One location was

Bua province Bua is one of fourteen provinces of Fiji. Located in the west of the northern island of Vanua Levu, it is one of three northern provinces, and has a land area of 1,379 square kilometers within the three main districts of Bua, Vuya and Wainunu. ...

, where one of the last women to be tattooed was Bu Anaseini Diroko. By 1933, another colonial administrator, George Kingsley Roth wrote that tattooing Fiji was "a past art", although it went on "surreptitiously" in the provinces of Ra and Mathuata. It is important to also acknowledge that the history and practice of veiqia was largely recorded by people who were not indigenous to Fiji. One example is anthropologist Anne Buckland, who published an article in 1888 which discussed the transmission of tattooing from Fiji to Samoa.

Revival

In 2015 curators

Tarisi Vunidilo Tarisi Vunidilo is a Fijian archaeologist and curator who specialises in indigenous museology and heritage management. Biography Vunidilo was born in Suva, Fiji. Her parents are from the southern Fijian island of Kadavu. She also studied for ...

and Ema Tavola, alongside artists

Joana Monolagi Joana Monolagi is a Fijian artist and masi maker, whose work is in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery. She was awarded the Pacific Heritage Art Award in 2015 at the Arts Pasifika Awards, recognising her work in supporting art and culture, h ...

, Donita Hulme, Margaret Aull, Luisa Tora, and Dulcie Stewart (great-granddaughter of Bu Anaseini Diroko), undertook a research project to greater understand veiqia and its personal significance for them. Working as a collective, under the title ''The Veiqia Project,'' the group travelled to Suva to examine museum collections and speak to community leaders. Their works were exhibited at the St Paul Street Gallery in Auckland in 2016. In 2017 the collective held an exhibition on veiqia at the

. A further instalment of the collective's work, curated by Luisa Tora, was exhibited in Christchurch in 2021, and was entitled ''iLakolako ni weniqia: a Veiqia Project Exhibition.'' The work of ''The Veiqia Project'' has sparked a revival interest in the tattooing practice, and a number of younger Fijian women in particular are adopting the veiqia. Modern dauveiqia include Julia Mage’au Gray.

Museum collections

During the nineteenth century, liku and records of veiqia began to be collected by non-Fijians. As anthropologist Karen Jacobs has observed "the tattooed body is hard to collect". The largest record of veiqia was made by

Anatole von Hügel Anatole von Hügel (29 September 1854, in Florence – 15 August 1928, in Cambridge) was the second son of the Austrian nobleman Charles von Hügel and his Scottish wife Elizabeth Farquharson. His elder brother was Friedrich von Hügel and his ...

, who became the first curator of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge, where the archive is held. Whilst von Hügel made drawings in the field, Fijian women also drew and recorded veiqia for him. Through careful comparison of archival drawings and von Hügel's notebooks, objects and drawings have been connected with the names of women whose veiqia were recorded. One woman, Laniana, whose veiqia are recorded, also travelled with von Hügel from 1875-76. In 1981, director of the

, Fergus Clunie, and his colleague Walesi Ligairi, recorded the veiqia of five eighty-year old women at

Vanua Levu Vanua Levu (pronounced ), formerly known as Sandalwood Island, is the second largest island of Fiji. Located to the north of the larger Viti Levu, the island has an area of and a population of 135,961 . Geology Fiji lies in a tectonically ...

. The women were all tattooed between 1908 and 1911 by Rabali, who was known as the "last daubauti". The women chose to be anonymised once the record of their veiqia was created, in order to spare their families from embarrassment. The South Australia Museum has ''bati'' (tattooing instruments) in its collection. Other museums which have also collected similar material include the

Auckland Museum The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira (or simply the Auckland Museum) is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its collections concentrate on New Zealand history (and especially the history of the Auckla ...

; the

Pitt Rivers Museum Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed t ...

; and the

Peabody Essex Museum The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and the ...

References

External links

Radio NZ Radio New Zealand ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa), commonly known as Radio NZ or simply RNZ, is a New Zealand public-service radio broadcaster and Crown entity that was established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates news and c ...

The Traditional Fijian Female Tattooing Practice of Veiqia
* {{Authority control Fijian culture Tattooing traditions Tattooing Fijian women