Kanak roof spire from New Caledonia

Kanak great houses are tall, conical and dark, and the spire is their signature. Look at the three parts: the foot, which was buried in the thatch and sometimes carved with a flat spatula shape; the central face, framed by a circle or a crown that stands for the chief's authority and the words he speaks; and the needle at the top, bristling with points, on which conch shells were sometimes threaded to catch the wind. The face here is stylised, with big protruding eyes and a wide mouth, in the manner of the central and northern Grande Terre. When a chief died the spire was taken down and placed on his grave, and later removed to be kept as an heirloom, so the objects that reached museums were often already retired.

The spire came to the Musée de l'Homme in 1945, according to its inventory number, and passed to this museum in 2006. The Kanak collections here are among the largest in the world, a legacy of French colonisation of New Caledonia since 1853, and in 2013 the museum mounted a major exhibition, Kanak, l'art est une parole, with loans from Nouméa. The Tjibaou Cultural Centre in New Caledonia, designed by Renzo Piano, takes the form of these great houses, so the spire is also a symbol of contemporary Kanak identity.

Did You Know? When a chief died his roof spire was taken down and set on his grave, so many spires in museums had already ended their working life.