"Malagan" figure
Description
wood, red, black and white pigment, plant fibre, shell inlay, clay-like mass, rest., base
The figure wears a large “kapkap”, the symbol of a clan leader, on its breast and holds a flying fish with both hands; it is crowned by a bird sculpture (hornbill / dove / owl) with a quadruped (cuscus?) in its beak. Her head is covered with black mass, in which small wooden sticks were originally inserted as a hairstyle.
The “malagan” carvings of northern New Ireland, the northeasternmost province of Papua New Guinea, are among the most intricate sculptures in Oceania.
The term “malagan” refers to a complex series of ceremonies and the visual art forms associated with them.
“Malagan” rites mark nearly all important stages of an individual’s life. Throughout life, individuals seek to acquire rights to specific “malagan” images and the rituals associated with them. Men, in particular, compete to obtain rights to the greatest number of “malagan”, possession of which confers status and prestige.
The most spectacular “malagan” carvings are created and displayed during the final memorial ceremony honoring the deceased, which, due to the great expense and extensive preparations involved, often occurs months or years after a person’s death. The aim of this ceremony is to “finish the dead”. This is done by remembering him with all his achievements for one last time - and then forgetting him. This approach requires that all of the deceased’s legal and personal matters be settled, that his land and other rights be transmitted, and that his positions in clan and community be taken over by successors. On a more esoteric note, it includes the recapturing of his life force, the energy of which is thought to reside in the “malagan” objects during the festival, and to be dispersed and activated among the participants at the end of the ceremony.
The feast includes the construction of a “malagan” house for the presentation of the art objects, the appearance of masked dancers at dawn, the exchange of larger quantities of shell money, the feasting on large amounts of taro, pork and bananas and the slaughtering of a vast numbers of pigs that are presented in front of the “malagan"house while respected elders offer speeches and preside over the ritual exchange that closes the ceremony.
Afterwards, the “malagan” carvings, having served their purpose, are destroyed, allowed to rot, or sold to outsiders. This final dismissal marks the “finishing” of the dead, when all the work of mourning and customary obligations has been settled. The dead are “sent away to biksolwara”—to the deep sea, where everything has come from and to where everything eventually returns.