SamoaNifo'oti from Samoa, Oceania. Collected by Henry Archibald Tufnell or William Macgregor. Given to the Museum by Henry Anson in 1899.

Nifo'oti are fascinating weapons. They are entirely unique to Samoa and are considered the 'national weapon'. Unlike the overwhelming majority of Polynesian clubs (New Zealand excepted), which possess a diamond, square or oval head section, or 'bird-headed forms which arch forward, nifo'oti possess an unusual monolinear axial symmetry; the front edge comprises a comb of teeth and the back edge is smooth save for a hook at the end ('nifo'oti' translates as 'tooth at the end'). How, then, did this apparent anomalous and unrelated weapon form arise?

In fact, the answer lies thousands of miles away in the greyer and cooler climes of England's 18th and 19th century industrial towns. The production of steel billhooks - large, broad-bladed and curved agricultural tools - were widely traded to the British colonies in the 18th and 19th century. The nifo'oti can be seen as an example of the cultural blurring that occurred in parts of the world after European contact and, more specifically, the highly adaptive nature of Polynesian societies: the innovative combination of tao woodcarving technology and traditional characteristics of Samoan clubs (i.e. the large 'teeth') with a Western template. Many Samoan nifo'oti actually utilised the original metal billhook blade, modifying it by hafting it onto a local handle. An example of such a steel nifo'oti is also on display in the Museum. Nifo'oti, both those with real billhook blades and the wooden facsimiles, were certainly employed as war-clubs but would have primarily been used for their original agricultural purpose.

Wooden weapons, such as this one, were often covered in traditional geometric designs, lending them an even more indigenous identity. Indeed, just 20 years after Cook's first visit to the archipelago, his journeying successors were already describing such weapons as 'indigenous forms'. It is interesting to note that the exact same phenomenon of wooden weapons carved to resemble steel tools and weapons of European origin was seen in the Solomon Islands (wooden tomahawks), Tonga, and Niue (wooden sabres and broadswords).