Dance club for the "napa" dance ·  Solomon Islands - Santa Cruz Islands · ID: 3036674

Description

light wood, black and red paint, “canoe-shaped” club corpus, characteristic is the pair of abstract animal or bird heads which ornament the upper surface, painted with geometrical ornaments, complete with tassels of coconut fiber and nuts, slightly dam., continuous crack (upper surface), metal base;
clubs like the present were carried by adult men who performed the “napa” dance at maturation rites. During the intricate steps male dancers struck their clubs together ritually. This may account for the often battered and split condition of some dance clubs. The people of Utupua Island in the southernmost Santa Cruz group claim that the club originated with them. They attribute its creation to a supernatural culture hero named “bamuda”. He is credited with determining the shape of the clubs with their distinctive “canoe-shaped” ends and with transmitting the manufacturing process as well as songs and dances associated with “napa” clubs to an unnamed male recipient whose descendants have traditional rights to perform with the clubs.

Comparing literature

Hurst, Norman, Power and Prestige, Cambridge 1996, p. 58 f.