Collection Close Up

This woven cuirass, or piece of body armour as it is otherwise known, is an intriguing item within the Museum collection that has long been shrouded in ambiguity.

This dance club, made c.1895, is an important component in the cultural narrative of the Santa Cruz Islands, Solomon Islands.

Until recently this bark cloth skirt was only known to have been created in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. In 2012 two female senior artists of Oro Province’s Ömie tribe, Chief of Dahorurajé clan women Fate Savari (Isawdi), born c.1933, and Chief of Sahuoté clan women Celestine Warina (Kaaru), born c.1947, identified the cloth as Ömie.

Constructed basically as a flat strip of cloth with a narrow slit on its reverse, item 9330 is intriguing because it is difficult to imagine what it was used for at first encounter.

This month the Anthropology Museum was visited by Martin Kombeng and Adam Kaminiel from New Ireland and later by Professor Susanne Küchler. During both visits there was much excitement on seeing this malangan from the Collection as it is thought to be very unusual.

This canoe prow ornament is of a type used in western parts of the Solomon Islands, with tabs that made it possible to slot the item into the bow of a canoe if and when required. This type of decorated prow is no longer seen in the Solomons and there are few examples in museums.

Stitched mats are made in many parts of Melanesia and are used as raincapes, floor and sleeping mats, wrapping the dead and as covers for newborn children.

King plates like the ones shown were an imposed role across parts of Aboriginal Australia. During the 19th and into the beginning of the 20th century individual men were chosen as ‘leaders’ so they could act as brokers between Euro-Australians and Indigenous groups.