Honor Maude of Canberra, Australia was the world authority on Oceanic

Pacific Islander

Pacific Islander , is a geographic term to describe the indigenous inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, these three regions, together with their islands consist of:Polynesia:...

 string figure

String figure

A string figure is a design formed by manipulating string on, around, and using one's fingers or sometimes between the fingers of multiple people. String figures may also involve the use of the mouth, wrist, and feet. They may consist of singular images or be created and altered as a game, known as...

s, having published Maude & Maude 1958, Maude & Wedgewood

Camilla Wedgwood

The Hon. Camilla Hildegarde Wedgwood was a British anthropologist best known for research in the Pacific and her pioneering role as one of the British Commonwealth's first female anthropologists.- Biography :...

 1967, Firth

Raymond Firth

Sir Raymond William Firth, CNZM, FBA, was an ethnologist from New Zealand. As a result of Firth's ethnographic work, actual behaviour of societies is separated from the idealized rules of behaviour within the particular society...

 & Maude 1970, Maude 1971, Maude 1978, Emory & Maude 1979, Maude 1984, and Beaglehole & Maude 1989. One of these being the, "the absolute bible of string-figure literature," according to Mark Sherman

Mark Sherman

Mark Allen Sherman of Pasadena, California is a biochemist and prominent string figure enthusiast. His editing and writing led to the publishing of Kwakiutl String Figures by Julia Averkieva, "the most comprehensive Native American string figure collection ever assembled from a single tribe," the...

. She was the wife of Henry Evans Maude

Henry Evans Maude

Henry "Harry" Evans Maude, OBE was a British civil servant and anthropologist. He was the husband of Honor Maude.Harry Maude was born 1 October 1906, in Bankipore, India....

, who sparked her interest in string figures through lending her a copy of Kathleen Haddon

Kathleen Haddon

Kathleen Haddon was a zoologist, photographer, and scholar of string-figures. She was the daughter of influential British anthropologist and ethnologist A. C. Haddon.-Bibliography:...

's Cat's Cradles from Many Lands on their way to Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony

Gilbert and Ellice Islands

The Gilbert and Ellice Islands were a British protectorate from 1892 and colony from 1916 until 1 January 1976, when the islands were divided into two different colonies which became independent nations shortly after...

, where, on Ocean Island

Banaba Island

Banaba Island , an island in the Pacific Ocean, is a solitary raised coral island west of the Gilbert Island chain and 300 km east of Nauru. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. It has an area of 6.5 km², and the highest point on the island is also the highest point in Kiribati, at 81...

 and later Beru

Beru Island

Beru Island is an island located in the Kingsmill Group of the South Gilbert Islands in the Pacific Ocean and is part of the Republic of Kiribati. Beru was previously known as Eliza, Francis Island, Maria, Peroat, Peru Island or Sunday.- Geography :...

, Maude saw string figures for the first time.