te barantauti
Donning pufferfish to battle
 
I wasn’t too hopeful that I’d be able to find any folklore on Puffer Fish to tie into this exhibition, and you can imagine my intrigue as my google searches returned a photo of a man wearing a puffer fish helmet. Fascinated by this, I discovered that these helmets are a unique cultural artefact from the islands of Kiribati, a Pacific Island Nation. The people of these islands used various ocean animals to create their armour and weapons, including stingray skin and shark teeth.
 
This image captures a Narrow Lined Puffer fish on the Ningaloo.