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New Guinea Clan & Cult Masks coming Soon!

The Sepik River snakes in broad, meandering coils for over 650 miles (1,100 km) before emptying into the Bismark Sea. It is New Guinea's equivalent of the Amazon and the Congo rivers.

There are mask-making villages all along the Sepik, but the middle river is the most densely populated with over 25 large villages of the Iatmul language group people between Moim and Pagwi. Tambanum is the largest, others include Timbunke, Angriman, Mindinbit, Kamanimbit, Kanganaman, Palimbei, Yentchan, Korogo and Kandingai.

The men carve masks from soft wood, although some are made of clay over-modeled onto turtle or coconut shell. They mix paints from earth pigments and charcoal. The masks are decorated with shells, pig tusks, and cassowary feather.

Few masks are worn directly over the face, which explains the lack of holes for eyes. Some are fastened onto a large cone-shaped wicker framework for a dance costume called a tumbuan. Raffia is knotted into the bottom hoop for skirting and flowers, fruit and leaves added on for color and power at the time of the ceremony. Other masks are made only for display, most often in the men's Haus, to attract powerful and useful spirits.

The individual elements of the masks are complex, beyond the scope of this article. They often refer directly or indirectly to ancestoror clan spirits and totems such as pig, cassowary (muruk), crocodile (pukpuk), eagle (taragau), or a water and bush bird (saun). There are many different types of masks for different purposes.

More New Guinea Mask information