Monthly Archives: September 2013

Samgik

Seeing a new spirit house and much art at Samgik was thrilling after knowing there has been such a long hiatus when cultural interest was not on the agenda. This was a surprise visit, sprung on us by a few guys who walked up to Brikiti, and were adamant that we really must go. There was much they wanted to show us, and that there were people waiting to show us some dances.

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And this is Woma culture, so it has difference to the Abelam and others. They had 4 dance groups with distinctive performances to welcome and entertain us. There was a new guest house, which also had two art collection within. And there was a new spirit house with an impressive facade. The interior was not yet completed, but it looked like the collections in the guest house were a trial run for the artists who might then work on the interior of the spirit house.

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In the end it was lucky that we were able to get in there, as the road was awful, although parts were being graded as went went through. Rain threatened while we were there and we had to get out before it hit as there was no way to negotiate such a bad road if it became slippery.

 

Malewai village & some history

In the Washkuk Hills area, just at the entrance to Washkuk lake near where the Sanchi River meets the great Sepik River is the village called Malewai.  The guys who showed us the new house under construction were happy that visitors were interested in their attempts to pass on their material cultural cultural heritage.

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It was from  the Kwoma village, Malewai in about 1971, that Douglas Newton acquired a ceiling for the Primitive Art Museum NY, that is now on display in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
See  below (http://goldwaterlibrary.wdfiles.com/local–files/pacific/kwoma_by_unforth.jpg):

In late 1973, Martin photographed the spirit house from which that ceiling came. But he was not told the name of the village, nor of the house, at the time. It was a quick and spontaneous visit and no  informants were available. In 2011 some Kwoma artists identified the place of the 1973 house as Malewai through the presence of a garamut, slit drum, in a photo.

We called in there on the 7th August 2013 and met the guys in charge of building a new spirit house, see photo. They confirmed that we were in the village I visited in 1973, and pointed out the old site where the former house used to be, and that indeed Douglas (Newton) had collected the ceiling from it. The men had immediately made a new one they said —and that must be the one in my photos.

However, the most interesting thing that they told us was that a group of people had just returned from the village of Bangwis, the one made famous by Ross Bowden. There they had helped celebrate the opening of a new spirit house.  That opening was on Friday 2nd August. Our efforts to get to Bangwis were thwarted due to time constraints, and to the amount of misinformation given by Bangwis and other Kwoma who should have (or maybe did) know. One Tongwinjamb guy earlier said that he thought this event was planned, but his view was vehemently contradicted by others who had closer contact with Bangwis!