viavia mamdeuko feather money: an artifact used by neighbouring Santa Cruz [...]

Part of Speech noun
Morphology viavia ‘hair, feathers’ + mamdeuko ‘Honeyeater’
    • feather money: an artifact used by neighbouring Santa Cruz islanders as their traditional money. Takes the form of a red belt, made with the red feathers of the Honeyeater bird.
      • Literally feathers of Honeyeater
      Infobox Feather money in Santa Cruz: “The people of Santa Cruz (Niteni) make their money using the feathers of a red bird called ‘mamdeuko’, Cardinal honeyeater. They use breadfruit sap to glue those feathers to a piece of wood. That traditional form of money, they call it ‘noviapu’.”
      Infobox (Teanu) Viavia mamdeuko: Dapa Niteni li-ejau viko iadapa ñe viavia menuko pe moloe, enga ini ‘mamdeuko’. Viavia pon, li-la abwa bale li-lateli ne mengela vilo. Viko peini, dapa li-kila li-ko ‘noviapu’.

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