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Sepik River Art
| Article
# : |
13655 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1988 |
5,211 Words |
| Author
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Perry Christiansen and Wendy Stone
Perry Christiansen is a free-lance author based in the
Washington, D.C., area. Wendy Stone is a free-lance
photojournalist. |
To understand the unique art of the middle and eastern Sepik regions of Papua New Guinea, and thereby the peoples who produce it, one must enter into a world of spirits where mysticism and ancestor worship prevail. Beyond the aesthetic appeal of Sepik River art lies its pragmatic utilization by villagers seeking to stay in harmony with the animistic forces of nature in which they believe.
The dominant feature of the Sepik district is the river itself. Winding from west to east in great looping bends, the Sepik River travels over seven hundred miles to the sea. Moving up from tributaries in the south, the river flows through the highlands of the Hunstein Range to the Ambunti Mountains, then northeast across a floodplain of swamp and rain forest. The plain is everywhere nearly at sea level. Rainfall is sixty inches or more a year, averaging three inches a month even in the dry season. Temperatures remain in the upper eighties throughout the year in most of the region.
As the river's depth ranges from a few feet in the dry season to twenty feet or more during the rainy season, flooding of the low-lying riverplain covers hundreds of square miles. Silt brought down from the highlands during floods will block the river's passage, changing its course and creating oxbow lakes that soon fill with fish, crocodiles, and water birds.
Scattered along the riverbanks and throughout the foothills are villages that until this century existed in nearly complete isolation. The world came to know the art of these villages from the vast collections of carvings, pottery, and paintings obtained, beginning in the early twentieth century, by
... (1985 of 30216 Characters)
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