Object Number: MIPCM 206.019
Object Name: Arm Ornament
Collection: Goldie Objects Collection
Description: Shell Armlet – toia (Motu and Koita); bwabwakipa (Massim).
Southeast coast or Massim area.
Collected c. 1876–1890.
Donated by Mr & Mrs Goldie, Ferry Road,
Millport, 1978
Armlet made from conus-shell
(Conus millepunctatus ?). 7cm (diam.); 3.2cm (h).
Notes: Conus-shell armlets (mwali), originating from the Trobriand Islands, were important exchange valuables in the Kula trade network which connected peoples of the Massim district.
They were also valued by the Motu and Koita peoples of the southeast coast,
where they were known as toia and featured among the valuables associated with firstchild ceremonies and bride-price. In 1876, Turner noted that ten toea (toia) armshells was ‘the price of a wife’ at Port Moresby (Turner,
1878: 479).
They were an article which the Motu traded west to the Papuan Gulf, where
they were also prized. Hula, Aroma and Kerepuna, villages from which Goldie sourced
a great deal of his ethnological material, are indicated as distributors and traders of toia arm-shells (obtained from Mailu or further east). Goldie recorded their rate of exchange at Port Moresby in 1876; Motu traders receiving two cwt. of sago from the Elema in exchange for one armlet.
