Polynesian Graphics


I created this page as a place for various graphic resources which I thought might be helpful to students creating projects about Call It Courage and One Day with Manu. I will expand the archive over time, and may even knuckle down and create a font based on the text in One Day with Manu (but don't hold your breath!).


In order to download any of these graphics for your own use, you will need to do one of the following:

MAC: Hold down the control key and click and HOLD the mouse-button down somewhere inside the image, so that a pop-up menu appears. Select "Save this image as..." from the menu, and save the file to a location on your harddrive.


WINDOWS: Right-click and HOLD the mouse-button down somewhere inside the image so a pop-up menu appears. Select "Save picture as..." from the menu, and save the file to a location on your harddrive.


Tapa Cloth Pattern from Call It Courage

tapa-callitcourage.jpg ( 12K)

This is the background repeating "tile" used throughout this site. It is based on my grandfather's tapa cloth pattern woodcut of the cover of the original hardcover edition of Call It Courage.

Call It Courage woodcut of tapa cloth


Tapa Cloth Patter from the University of Hawai'i

tapa-univhawaii.jpg (4.1K)

I found this tapa cloth "tile" at the website of the University of Hawaii.

Tapa cloth from the University of Hawaii


Stamps from Samoa with Margaret Mead & Robert Louis Stevenson

samoa_mead_stamp.gif (9.5K)
samoa_stevenson_stamp.jpg ( 28K )

On the left is a US Postage stamp celebrating anthropologist Margaret Mead, who went to Samoa in 1925 and wrote about it in her book, Coming of Age in Samoa. (Note the tapa cloth in the background!)

On the right is a stamp from 1939 with writer Robert Louis Stevenson, probably best known for penning Treasure Island and Dr. Jeckle & Mr. Hyde, marking the 25th anniversary of New Zealand's control of the mandated territory of Western Samoa.

Stamp from Samoa of anthropologist Margaret Mead Stamp from Samoa of writer Robert Louis Stevenson


Some Polynesian Coins

polynesian-coins.jpg ( 50K)

These aren't especially old coins, but are interesting! This image shows (left to right) the 10 franc, 100 franc, 20 franc and 50 franc coins from the 1970s and 1980s from French Polynesia, which includes Tahiti and Bora Bora.


Thumbnail of map of Oceania, 2001


Oceania, Reference Map, 2001, produced by the CIA

Click on the links below to choose your full-sized map:




Oceania, Political Map, 1997

Click on the links below to choose your full-sized map:


French Polynesia, Political Map, 1989

NOTE: You can find Hikueru, Mafatu's home island on this map in the Tuamotu chain. One of the Marquesan islands, north of there, might have been where Mafatu had his adventures and encountered the "eaters of men."

Click on the link below to choose the full-sized map:



This page last updated Sunday, 05/02/21,, by Margo Burns, margo@ogram.org
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