Storyboard
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About This Item
Kambot storyboards depict mythological stories. The bird and human headed figures represent spirits who inhabit trees. After Europeans first arrived in the area in 1913, missionaries prohibited villagers from practicing ceremonies, preventing the transmission of cultural knowledge.
Beginning in the 1970s, Kambot artists have revived these traditions through storyboards, which not only meet demands of the tourist trade but also help pass down traditions to younger generations and keep these stories alive.
Look for crocodiles, canoes, ancestors, spirits, and houses. Spirits often manifest themselves as animals. In many Sepik River creation stories, the world originated on the back of a giant crocodile. What kind of story about their world do you think the artist is telling us?
- Date
- 1970s
- Geography
- Kambot community, Lower Sepik River, Papua New Guinea, Oceania
- Medium
- wood
- pigment
- Context
The Oceania collection at the Global Museum—the largest collection in the museum’s holdings—primarily consists of objects from the late 1970s and 1980s in the newly formed Independent State of Papua New Guinea. Among Papua New Guinean communities, objects serve to educate young people about their families and heritage, to celebrate cycles of life and death, to protect those who travel the waterways and forests, and to create a sense of identity and purpose within the community.
- Height
- 31.25 in
- Width
- 45.75 in
- Depth
- 2.75 in
- Copyright
- Copyright status unknown. Some materials in these collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing, and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
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- 1684