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.