Rare dance shield
Ahlvers worked from 1890-94 as a general purser for the shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd in German Guinea. Until his internment in Australia in 1914, he ran a hotel in the former Friedrich Wilhelm harbour, now Madang, on the northern tip of Papua New Guinea.
Description
wood, lime, pigments, rest., base
An almost identical shield in terms of form and ornamental decoration (with the exception of the figure) is published in D. Waite, “Art of the Solomon Islands from the Collection of the Barbier-Müller Museum”, Geneva 1983, p. 26, pl. 4, which also contains a field photograph from 1912 showing a Telei man dancing with the shield.
According to Richard Thurnwald, who conducted field research on the Solomon Islands in 1912, these dance shields were used at “unu” festivals. The “unu” was celebrated when a boy reached a certain age (6-8, more commonly 10-12 years). During this festival a ceremonial “treaty” was made with the chief who would take revenge for every harm that has been done to the boy, as a sort of life insurance.