Sago tongs

Reference : 91415

Pair of sago tongs
Wood enhanced with pigments.
Wicker, ochre and red pigments.
Dimensions: Height: 49 & 50cm
Presumed period: 20th century
Wosera population. Abelam.
Papua New Guinea Provenance:
– Collected by Bruce Lawes (between 1947 and 1965)
– Collection Mr. & Mrs W Nicholson (USA), acquired from the former between 1969 and 1974
Exhibition: “We Shout To Make it Silent…”.
Plattsburgh State Art Museum. State University of New York, October 2003 / January 2004
Published and reproduced in Assayag Marc 2003.
Page 19. n°39 & 40

More details

Called Tapak, they represent a pair of ancestors, seen at mid-body, arms at their sides, hands stylized on their stomachs.
The figures, whose busts are scarified, wear the “Wagnen” or initiates’ crest on their heads.
A hole in the ears was used to attach decorations. In addition to its exceptional state of preservation, the rarity of this pair of Tapak lies in the fact that they are carved in the shape of Janus.
Each figure being “male-female”
These tongs were used to hold a sago palm leaf, folded into a trough shape to extract the flour from the heart of the palm.
Sago flour was a staple food in many regions of Papua New Guinea.

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