Tevau (feather money coils)

The more red the color, the more valuable it is . . . It is like a shedding of blood 

—Patricia George, collection specialist at Solomon Islands National Museum  

Rare red feathers are revered throughout Oceania as a valuable, spiritually charged material. In the Santa Cruz Islands, they were incorporated into fiber coils that once acted as the primary form of currency. Tevau were used to acquire canoes and other prestigious items, as compensation to settle disputes, and as part of bride wealth—ceremonial payments organized by a groom’s family. It took feathers from more than three hundred scarlet honeyeaters (Myzomela cardinalis) and the sacred knowledge of three specialists from one island, Ndende, to make just one tevau. When not in use, money coils were carefully wrapped in palm leaves and bark cloth, with turtle shell charms tucked into their interiors for spiritual protection.