String and Things

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The Huli wigmen are some of the most colorful dancers at the Mt. Hagen Show. This warrior's necklace features a hornbill beak backed by pig tusks and a necklace of Job's tears and red seeds.

Detail of hornbill (kokomo) beak.

Hair wigs are made by different groups in the Highlands and each has a distinctive form. They are shaped from human hair and elaborated with many different kinds of feathers. Red, yellow and white clays are used for body paint.

The facing warrior has a complete Bird of Paradise attached to front of his wig.

Both the komo-komo necklace from the Bena Bena area and the armband are made from hand-twisted string using a continuous knotting technique. The fibers come from the inner bark of various trees. Small geri geri shells detail the edges of the komo-komo and both pieces are colored using natural dyes.

Beautiful feathers are only part of this girl's lovely bilas. Croton leaves and pink everlasting daisies are stuck into her fiber armbands and plumes of ornamental grass extend the height of the headdress. Green beetles and a green snake or lizard skin form part of her headband. Her necklace is a simple, but charming, traditional one made from links of bamboo and woven chains.

This is a similar necklace from the Kukukuku tribe. They are a small, but fierce people, previously known for their murderous surprise raids on other groups' villages. They live in very remote mountainous country, many days walk from all except a few mission air strips. The tassels are bilum string braided with yellow orchid vine fiber and the center ornament is a opossum ball.

These dancers use plants for different, but tremendous effect. The bleached white grass skirts of the coastal warriors swivel to the beat of the kundu drums.

The fern man wears a cloak of bilum string and has blackened his body with soot and pig grease.

Both wear pig tusk necklaces. The fern man also has a pig tusk nose piece.

BILAS | Shells are Gold | Tooth and Bone

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Photographs, text and maps copyright © Carolyn Leigh, 1996-2007. All rights reserved. Last modified: May 23, 2007
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Artifacts on this site are collected in the field by my husband, Ron Perry. I take the photographs, do the html, text and maps. More background in Who We Are. Art-Pacific has been on the WWW since 1996. We hope you enjoy our New Guinea tribal art and Indonesian folk art as much as we do. Carolyn Leigh, P.O. Box 85284,Tucson, AZ 85754-5284 USA, Art-Pacific at http://www.art-pacific.com/