Pestle

This extremely rare drumstick represents a spiny anteater (Australian Eschine), a species found only in Australia and Papua New Guinea. This animal would have been revered at the time for its fat. Fashioned over 3,500 years ago, these works of art are the oldest known in the Pacific.
This rammer belongs to a small group of statuettes recorded worldwide, including a model discovered in 1962 in the Ambum Valley, acquired from the Philip Goldman collection by the Australian National Gallery in Canberra, and a second in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
In recent decades, these objects have been rediscovered by villagers during agricultural work. They are often considered sacred and credited with supernatural powers by today’s Highland populations.
The meaning and function of these pestles remain obscure, as does little about the people who produced this superb work. It’s not impossible that they were used, among other things, to prepare ritual dishes. In all likelihood, the need for stone pestles was lost when sweet potatoes were introduced to the region four hundred years ago, replacing the very hard taro tuber.

Joan & Jim Erkkila
Joan and her husband Jim Erkkila left for Papua in 1951. They were members of the Unevangelised Fields Mission (UFM) before joining the congregation of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in 1957.
Settled in the village of Walette, between Tari and Koroba, they married in Tari in 1953 and stayed on as missionaries in the area.
Joan, who spoke the Huli language, taught the women of the village the divine word. Jim owned a sawmill in the village. They collected a series of objects, mainly in stone (pestle, mortar, axe blade, etc.).
A dozen pieces from their collection were sold in Sydney.

Price on request