Tribal Art

Panel painted on panggal (mbi), stems of sago palm leaves, from the hills of Washkuk, Upper Sepik, in Papua New Guinea, collected in the 1970s in situ by an ethnologist. The motifs represented on a black background symbolize the artist's clan. The painting is fixed on a wooden panel dyed black. Among the Kwoma ("Men of the hills"), these assembled panels covered the internal face of the roof within the houses of worship and the men. Each Kwoma clan has a certain number of totems, plants or animal species, classified by gender. The Kwoma economy depends on sago, the fruit of the sago palm, and the yam with which various ritual ceremonies are associated.