In the Footprint of the Crocodile Man, the latest exhibit at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology, opened to the public on Tuesday night. The exhibition uses the art of the Iatmul people of the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea to examine their history, culture and stories. As well, the exhibit focuses the damage caused by logging and mining by highlighting the risks that the Frieda mine pose to the Iatmul’s culture, economy and way of life.
The exhibit primarily featured wood sculptural works carved by Iatmul men. The carving style had been passed down through generations with all the artists having learned to carve at a young age from family members. The majority of the pieces featured in the exhibit were not works intended to be kept in the home or used for a ceremonial reason, but were instead pieces created to satisfy the art market. For this reason, the pieces — while building on earlier works — are not copies and must convey emotions and deeper meanings while still serving their purpose of retelling the stories of the Iatmul people, which are passed on orally through generations.
Due to their cultural purpose, some of the carvings featured in the exhibit are accompanied by an explanation of the cultural practice that the work is depicting, giving a unique insight into the traditions of the Iatmul people. One of these explanations described the practice of ritual scarring of the Iatmul men to imitate the pattern of crocodile skin, stemming from the belief in ancestral ties to the crocodiles.
“He is brought to the Spirit House by his uncle who supports him as he lies across an upturned canoe whilst a village leader uses a razor blade to cut a design on his back that emulates the marks of a crocodile,” explained Belden Minjan, a carver from the Palembei village. “The blood that runs out is his mother’s blood and when the cutting is finished, he is totally separated from his mother and has become a man. Now he is a crocodile man.”
Other carvings are accompanied by written descriptions of the story that the carving is depicting, providing an interesting background of the art and the people who have created it.
Another prominent feature of the exhibit is the multimedia screens, which have videos of the Iatmul people creating their art, talking about their culture and also detailing the potential environmental harm faced by the area. Among these, the most noticeable is a video showing the Iatmul women as they go through the process of weaving baskets, displayed behind their art.
The art is the gallery was also accompanied by various photographs featuring the Sepik river, which display both the environmental and cultural aspects of the region. One of these photos displayed near Minjan’s work and description is a photograph of the crocodile-like scarification patterns of one Iatmul man.
The exhibit’s blending of the art of the Iatmul people with the photographs and videos of the region provided a unique insight into both the environment and culture of the Sepik river, highlighting the importance of preserving the Iatmul’s culture and way of life despite commercial interests in the area.
In the Footprint of the Crocodile Man is currently displayed at the UBC Museum of Anthropology and will be open until January 31, 2017.
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