Tusken Raiders in Star Wars

I was told the other day that the Sand People - aka The Tusken Raiders - in the film Star Wars are armed with genuine Fijian weapons. Very "huh?" right?  And definitely one of those things that require checking out.

OK, thousands of Tusken Raiders clips in there. Scary how many young boys have made their own duplicates using stop-go action figures or claymation.  Peter Jackson has a lot to answer for.

But is there the real Star Wars clip? 

Got it:



YES!!! Check out that: if you freeze at 1.07,  1.29 and 1.52 I think we have the definitive answer YES! The Tusken Raiders are very definitely carrying a Fijian weapon called something like totokai. We used to have one hanging among other antique Fijian weapons on the wall in our dining room. (Thinking about this, that's shocking Feng Shui. No wonder we had so many battles over dinner.)

But let me get a closer look at that. Can I locate an image?

Yup, that is very definitely a totokai.  Looks like a good one too. I wonder where George Lucas found 'em? Barnum's Circus?

Actually, there was a lot of Fijian stuff in Barnum's Circus that has recently come to light and has Fiji up in arm, particularly since they include a lot of Fijians apparently bought off Blackbirders (the slave traders who used to kidnap Pacific Islanders to sell as slaves.) Photos of these poor souls have recently come to light and it's been seen as very offensive.

One of the many offending photos.

And one of those photos includes a totokai. Let me see if I can find that one:

 Barnum's Fijians.

With totokai.

Gosh, just look at this.  I was told something I thought was impossible, and within 10 minutes I had the answer.  It's a Brave New World we're living here and I can't tell you how much I love it.