Brag mask

This large mask is oval in shape, with the face surrounded by a fretworked motif that borders the lower half, called tared or hound’s teeth. A small, pierced mouth is set beneath an insect-like nose, curved at the tip, with a pierced septum. The circular eyes are topped by a broad, tapering forehead.

Rectangular holes are drilled around the perimeter for costume mounting. A gripping hole allows the mask to be attached to a mobile support, leaning against a wall inside the ceremonial house.

The long, curved nose indicates that this mask does not represent a human figure, but a spirit figure known as a brag. It was not worn, but attached to a large bamboo superstructure that rose more than three meters above the dancer’s head.

According to Philippe ^Peltier2 “During initiations, these spirits would devour the young initiates, then spit them out. This swallowing was an important moment in the transformation of young boys into adults.”

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1- Crispin Howarth is currently Curator for the Pacific Rim at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

2- Peltier-Schindlbeck-Kaufmann. 2015, p.2

Hermann Mark Lissauer (1923-2016) was born in Hamburg, Germany. A Holocaust survivor, he and his father worked in the sugar cane and rattan industry in Angoram on the Sepik River from the 1950s to the early 1970s. It was from this town that he made several expeditions to collect a large number of objects. He sold to major private collections and museums around the world, including the Rockefeller Museum, the British Museum and the Musée national des arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, now part of the Musée du quai Branly.