The coconut, which flourishes in brackish or salty coastal environments,
forms a vital part of the diet of a large number of Pacific Islands inhabitants.
A coconut grater is used to shred coconut meat from which the milk is expressed
to mix with other staples such as yams, taro, hana, breadfruit, or fish. The
coconut grater varies in form; the principle components, however, are a blade,
traditionally of shell and a stick. The blade is cemented or lashed to the
stick upon which the user sits to stabilize the implement while it is being
used. When available, metal blades replaced shell ones. The present example
has a certain spare elegance with its white and red pigmented dentate border.
The original shell grater blade is secured to the one-piece seat with paranarium
nut paste. The indented band across the bench is unprecedented in the few
examples which have been located. This feature may have been the owner's modification
to accommodate a binding that secured the grater to a solid base, such as
a log or projecting beam. This coconut grater is quite old and is a rare decorated
example of the basic implement. Two similar undecorated graters, from Shortland
or Treasury Islands, are in the collection of the Museum of Mankind, London.
Published: Hurst, Norman. 1996. Power and Prestige: The Arts of Island Melanesia
and the Polynesian Outliers. Cambridge, MA: Hurst Gallery. (cat. 9) |
