Oceania
Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Pole Club, Akatara
Ironwood (Casuarina equisetifolia)
H. 98 1/4 in. (249.6 cm)
Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection
Indiana University Art Museum, 64.12

Nowhere in the world did the making of clubs, spears, and other weapons reach higher aesthetic refinement than in the islands of Polynesia before the coming of Christianity. On the Cook Islands, eight different forms were used, the pole club being among the most elegant weapons.