This type of stone adze was used across the region to fell trees and dress timber for house and canoe construction prior to the introduction of metal blades in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

c. 1000 BCE

The Lapita people arrive first from the west; continuing population movements and migrations thereafter
 

c. AD 1000

Voyagers sail east from western Polynesia to settle the rest of Polynesia; continuing periodic arrivals from the west and regular interactions with Tonga and Samoa
 

1643

The Dutchman Abel Tasman visits Tonga
 

1774

James Cook visits Vatoa in southern Lau, Fiji

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In GDGDA Tacita Dean captures Mehretu working in her studio, offering spectators a glimpse into a practice that is often shrouded and solitary. The camera looks over Mehretu’s shoulder as she works deliberately and intensely on Mural, a monumental corporate commission, in Lower Manhattan; “GDGDA” translates to “wall” or “mural” in Amharic, one of the Semitic languages of Ethiopia.

Mehretu often incorporates maps into her work in order to interrogate how political boundaries affect individual and collective identities. For the artist, whose personal history has been shaped by periods of migration—from Addis Ababa to East Lansing, New York, Berlin, and beyond—this practice has allowed her to “make sense of who I was in my time and space and political environment.”

Mehretu has worked in printmaking since she was a graduate student. The methodical process of making prints, which includes decisions about line, weight, color, and layering, has informed her painting practice. “Lots of small marks have power,” she has explained, hinting at the social and political implications at the root of her approach to abstraction.