Cook Islands Curio Trade
p. 45 · Read in the full issue
In Doldrums
Prom Our Mangaia Correspondent THE world shortage of caustic lye has put an end to the formerly flourish ing trade in shell-beads, peculiar to this island. The minute snail-shells had to be boiled in lye to prepare them for threading on hat-bands, necklaces, etc.
There is no caustic now, so there is no “pupu”-market either.
One wonders how many ex-GI homes contain souvenirs of the South Seas of this nature, brought home by servicemen from regions that are still associated in the American mind with hula-dancers, grass skirts and romance a-la Hollywood.
It is rumoured that curio shops in Hawaii pass off Cook Island pupu-work, done by the maids and matrons of Mangaia, as genuine Hawaiian handicrafts—and, no doubt, at a vastly improved value.
Locals did not get much for the stuff, whether they sold loose shells by the pound to the dealers who were not slow to take advantage of the GI market, or finished necklaces and hat-bands.
With the pupu went the hoped-for mar ket for locally-made rau mats, which are great savers of city linoleum. No one wants an island mat now, it would appear.
Mangaia has not yet attempted the ex port of its talent in the form of a troupe of local entertainers. This, from present indications, is the last avenue left for Cook Islanders to make a little monev.