Bede is from Melville Island and is a senior Tiwi artist who is skilled in painting, carving and printmaking. Diana is an archaeologist and artist who has worked closely with indigenous communities on Melville Island since the 1970s. Alison is a researcher at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and studied the Tiwi collections at the British Museum as part of her PhD.
We were pleased to be able to show Bede, Diana, and Alison the objects in the Pitt Rivers Museum from Melville Island. This included three very heavy carved and decorated wooden burial poles and two large painted bark baskets. While we were all studying the collection they kindly told us more about these interesting objects.
The poles and baskets are still made and continue to be used in Pukumani ceremonies.
 |
| Nicholas and Alison from the Pitt Rivers looking at one of the Pukumani poles with Alison, Diana and Bede © Pitt Rivers Museum |
This is a public ceremony performed to ensure the spirit of a dead person passes from the living to the spirit world. The painted bark baskets are placed on top of the poles at the end of the Pukumani ceremony as gifts for the spirits.
 |
| Looking closely at the bark baskets © Pitt Rivers Museum |
 |
| From left to right: PRM 1915.10.23, 1914.43.1, 1915.10.25, 1915.10.24 © Pitt Rivers Museum |
 |
| PRM 1915.10.20 © Pitt Rivers Museum |
On the left you can see the carved poles we looked at, the one in the middle has one of the bark baskets placed over the top.
You can see the other bark basket on the right.
If you have an opportunity to visit, you will find all three of the Pukumani poles on permanent display in the Lower Gallery of the Museum.
Zena McGreevy
Senior Assistant Curator
No comments:
Post a Comment