Two Australian Aboriginal Painted Wooden Tiwi Posts

Two Australian Aboriginal Painted Wooden Tiwi Posts
Melville Island, Northern Australia
Natural earth pigments on carved ironwood
Circa 1970’s or earlier
Size: 184 cm high, - 72½ ins high and 242 cm high – 95¼ ins high
The Tiwi people of Melville and Bathurst Islands make these posts to commemorate their dead 'Pukumani ceremonies. Remarkable, energetic and acrobatic ceremonial dances are performed at the grave site at an appropriate time after burial, in order to drive the ancestral spirit into the grave. The site is cleared and the newly created posts which may number up to fifteen are placed upright in the ground over the grave.

Two Australian Aboriginal Painted Wooden Tiwi Posts

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ENQUIRIES

+44 (0)7768 236921
+44 (0)7836 684133

enquiries@finch-and-co.co.uk