Indigeneous Boats in the Ethnological Museum Berlin-Dahlem

The Ethnological Museum in Berlin-Dahlem hosts an impressive collection of boats from the South-Pacific region.
These have been on display since the early 1970s in a large dedicated hall of the museum. The boats come from all the regions, that is Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia and have been collected over a period of some hundred years between the last quarter of the 19th century and the early 1960s.
The museum's collection also contains a West-Greenland kajak and some kajak models.

It may be noted that due to the re-organisation of the Berlin museums, the Ethnological Museum in Berlin-Dahlem will close down in the autumn of 2016 to be re-opened in the re-constructed Royal Palace in the centre of Berlin, once this has been completed

Double-click on thumbnails for full-size images

Outrigger boat from Niutao, Ellice Island
In use until 1961 and then acquired by the Museum. A detailed description and a report on the building of a model can be found here.

Outrigger boat (soatau) from Samoa for the bonito angling
The boat was built around 1870 and was presumably brought back to German by traders, who were active on Samoa since the early 1870s.

Outrigger boat (wa) for inter-island travel from Jaluit, Mashall Islands
The boat was acquired in 1880

Ocean going boat (te puke) with crab-claw sail from Taumako/Nifiloli, Santa-Cruz-Islands
This was the last of its kind and was acquired by the Museum in 1967