Gezicht op Taini Beqa en een lagune before 1899

Maximilian Agassiz made this print of Taini Mbeka Island in Fiji, sometime between the late 19th and early 20th century. It is part of a larger volume entitled “Fiji Islands and Coral Reefs”. Agassiz was a Harvard trained zoologist and marine biologist who studied the oceanography of the Pacific. The image here is scientific in character. It’s purpose being to document the geographical features of Fiji and its surrounding coral reefs. From a social and cultural perspective, the image reflects an increased interest by western powers in the study and classification of foreign lands. Fiji became a British colony in 1874, not long before this image was made. So we might think of this image as evidence of British colonial interest in the region and their desire to understand the environment from a scientific perspective. Looking at images like this from a historical point of view requires a lot of research. We might begin by asking how the Fijian people themselves understood their natural environment at this time.