TIQA Fiji Dart Game

Provenance: Provenance:
“Huize Loreto”, the monastery of the Marist Fathers, Lievelde, the Netherlands, N° 412 (old N° 204), the inventory cards describe the object as “Tiga, pour jeu figie” and “Een pijl of enn kinderspel of voor een vogel misschien voor de Tiga Fidji (an arrow from a children's game (sic))”.

Literature: The game of veitiqa - exclusively male, and played during the yam flowering, consists of throwing the darts with force and skill, as far as possible, on a field specially prepared in the form of a competition in order to earn points. The launch is done with a so-called "under hand" throw (unlike a classic javelin throw) or with a coconut fiber throwing rope (sennit). This game, with its sexual overtones and often violent clashes between teams, was quickly banned by the first missionaries. The game of tiqa existed in most of the islands of Western Polynesia, Tonga, Fiji, Wallis, Niue, etc., probably as a Fijian export.

See here the drawing by Arthur John Lewis Gordon, cousin to Fiji's governor, Sir Arthur Gordon showing a game of Tiqa, the reed-throwing competition which often led to fighting and conflict bewteen villages.