netbag
- Museum number
- Oc1936,0720.137
- Description
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Netbag made of string.
- Curator's comments
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This bag is from the Middle Ramu (not the Lower Sepik). It is used for carrying food, such as heavy tubers (taro, yam, sweet potatoe). It is only used by women. This bag is known as "au sakwing", which means "big bilum" in Nekgini langugae of Reite Village, Madang, Papua New Guinea. The bag is made from a fibre known as yaaki in Nekgini language, made from Pueraria pulcherrima (Koord) Koord.- Schumacher (Fabaceae) [Alternative identification Canaralia cathartica/ papuana (Fabaceae/Leguminosae)]. The blue dye is kaatiping in Nekgini language, and the brown dye is known as ropie in Nekgini language, made from a bark or wood of a tree which they beat or chew and squeeze from which red juice is mixed with lime powder to make the brown dye. This is an old bag, as it has holes in it. Possibly it was made by the same woman who made 1936.0720.137. Poror Nombo and Pinabin Sisau, Reite Village, Madang, Papua New Guinea, Melanesia Project 5 August 2009.
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See: Haddon & Risbeth (1936). ‘The Pygmies of the Aiome Mountains, Mandated Territory of New Guinea’ in The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 66, pp.269-290.
Braunholtz, H.J. (1936). ‘Note on a Special Exhibition of Ethnographical Objects from New Guinea and Indonesia collected by Lord Moyne’ in Man, Vol. 36, pp.95-96.
Braunholtz, H.J. (1937). ‘Ethnographical collection from New Guinea’ in The British Museum Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp.163-7.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1936
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1936,0720.137