Title
Traditional Wap (II)
2021
Artist
-
Details
- Place where the work was made
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Boigu Island
→
Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait Islands)
→
Australia
- Date
- 2021
- Media category
- Sculpture
- Materials used
- synthetic polymer paint and cassowary feathers on wongai wood
- Dimensions
- 165.0 x 4.0 cm
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased with funds provided by the Aboriginal Art Collection Benefactors 2022
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 263.2022
- Copyright
- © Ishmael Gibuma
- Artist information
-
Ishmael Gibuma
Works in the collection
- Share
-
About
Art Centre documentation for this work states:
"The old people made the wap from either wongai wood or thulu wood (a hardwood made from the Acacia family).A man made his wap in the kwod (ceremonial place). First, the man shaped the timber with a sharp stone or a shell. He made it to a size to suit his strength, carving the wood so the grain went along the shaft.
I craft my wap using the method of my forefather Gimbuma Asa, who was a Saibai man. Gibuma got the idea from his uncle (father's brother) who was Wageba, the father of Bamaga. Wageba used to make a wap with a bigger head.That's the same way I make a wap today.
The designs on the head of the wap represent my tribe/clan groups - Dhoeybaw (Wild Yam), Koedal (Crocodile), and Baydham (Shark). The Samu (Cassowary) feathers on the wap are for decoration by the original idea was for them to help the wap stay afloat."
Ishmael Gibuma 2022