Title
Ambusap (wealth object)
early 20th century-mid 20th century
Artist
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Details
- Place where the work was made
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Middle Sepik River
→
East Sepik Province
→
Papua New Guinea
- Cultural origin
- Iatmul people
- Date
- early 20th century-mid 20th century
- Media category
- Ceremonial object
- Materials used
- plaited plant fibre, nassa shells, cowrie shells
- Dimensions
- 108.0 cm length
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of Todd Barlin 2020. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 183.2020
- Artist information
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Iatmul people
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
In 1930, during an expedition through the Sepik region, Swiss ethnologist Felix Speiser documented Iatmul women wearing woven hoods across their heads as protection from the elements. Not only did these hoods have a practical use, they were also observed at Yentchan village by the Australian filmmaker Des Bartlett, who travelled to the Sepik in 1953, in use as part of the 'Naven' ritual performance as described by anthropologist Gregory Bateson, where they are worn by men during mythological re-enactments involving female ancestors.
Woven from estuarine reeds this rain hood is decorated with knotted and looped elements, painted with alternating stripes of red, yellow, black and white pigments, and finished with unwoven lengths of reed to form a fringe.
