Dance wand "napa" ·  Îles Salomon - Îles Santa Cruz · ID: 3034527

Description

light-coloured wood, painted with black colour, red and white pigments, “canoe-shaped” with rounded end, painted with geometrical decor, the fibre tassle decoration has long gone, dam. (tip, rims), missing parts (handle, ornamental side projections), cracks, abrasion of paint, traces of usage and old age;

Clubs like this were once carried at dances performed 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.

Littérature comparée

Solomon Islands Art, The Conru Collection, Quart (Aosta) 2008, p. 127, ill. 74