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!

There were two spectacular ceremonial openings organised by the artists who displayed their work in Brisbane at APT7 that we saw on this trip to the East Sepik. Justin and I were also doing a mini cultural eco-tourism potential reconnaissance survey on the side to try to assist the communities to benefit from the exposure their work had in Brisbane.

Kwoma : Opening of a new spirit house in Tongwinjamb #3 5th August 2013

The respective openings and festivities in the Abelam and Kwoma were spectacular visual, musical, and performance events. The night music show done on the ridge platform of the new spirit house in Tongwinjamb in pitch darkness was very accomplished in composition and in its performance. It was magical, and was worthy of being staged, for example, in Hamer Hall in Melbourne. The Kwoma guys opened a new spirit house that they had been working on when they were commissioned for APT7 in 2011at Tongwinjamb with an official opening program in the morning, and a music performance at night. The next day was another set of ceremonies and festivities and more night dancing, There were dancing local village groups and also some from three nearby places but from different directions, and there was also a lot of art on display.

Abelam : Mini Yam Festival at Brikiti -an Apengai village

The Abelam guys had a Mini Yam Festival that involved an initiation ceremony and unusual associated display of an interior chamber inside an old house. A number of young guys were taken through a stage of male initiation and there were some spectacular dancing groups performing. There was also some newly revived art, not seen since the 1980s, from Ilahita, the co-organisers of this show. Although crammed into one day, and a bit chaotic in starting, this was a well supported event with considerable local interest and enthusiastic local and neighbouring participation. A new spirit house is going to be built to replace this one which is well past its use by date.

Waikua’s haus tambaran Brikiti photographed in 2011