SEPIK JOURNEY

Susan Cochrane

The Sepik is a ‘wild’ river: no cities with concrete banks and snarls of infrastruc-ture have been built along its serpentine coils; no industry pollutes it; no bridge or dam has altered the pace of its flow or the movement of people along it. 1

Descending from the Victor Emanuel Range in the central highlands of Papua New Guinea, the Sepik River briefly enters the Indonesian province of West Papua and winds through the Sundaun and East Sepik provinces of Papua New Guinea, reaching the sea about 100 kilometres east of Wewak. The river system with its tributaries, lakes and vast catchment area is one of the great river systems of the world.

The river banks are home to some 80 000 people living in villages clus-tered in distinctive language-culture groups. Over millennia, past generations of Sepik peoples created the social and cultural knowledge that still shapes the social organisation, customs and lifestyle particular to each language group. Sepik art, in all its forms, expressions and ceremonies, binds people to their creation, ancestors, life cycles, their physical environment and all creatures that inhabit it, and the supernatural world.

In the recent past, complex interactions with colonial government of-ficials, armies of Japanese and Allied soldiers, missionaries, teachers, traders and tourists also wrought profound impacts on the people’s way of life and cultural heritage. Today Sepik people are proud of being part of the independ-ent developing nation of Papua New Guinea, but despite it being home to the nation’s first and longest-serving Prime Minister, Grand Chief Sir Michael So-mare, the East Sepik Province is one of the poorest and least developed in the country. Most villages have no electricity or town water supply, health services are scarce and many grow up with little formal schooling.

The Sepik is acknowledged as a source of great artistic and cultural systems, yet characteristic styles of Sepik art are not admitted to modern or contemporary categories—in Western art and thought the artists and their art remain ‘tribal’—and most Sepik artists do not exhibit beyond their own com-munities. In the mid-Sepik region, the soaring haus tambaran (men’s house reserved for male initiates) in the villages of Iatmul people, such as Korogo, Palembei, Kanganaman and Tambanam, bears witness to the men’s extraor-dinary skills with monumental sculpture and architecture. Contained within are precious sacred and ritual objects as well as displays of the men’s carvings offered for sale. What serious collectors and passing tourists acquire from these villages as ‘Sepik art’ enters new zones—‘exhibitions’ in museums and art galleries, ‘objects of desire’ for connoisseurs, ‘souvenirs’ of tourist’s holi-days—but it is not often that knowledge of them passes back. The objects and images collected on our Sepik journey will be returned to the Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery, with photographs and copies of the exhibition catalogue going back to the source communities.

Access to art materials such as canvas, paper, paints and pencils is virtually non-existent in the Sepik and most artists have not experienced han-dling them and creating work with them. There are no art centres, like in Australian Aboriginal communities, which assist artists in the documentation and promotion of the artworks they produce for sale. Occasionally senior Sepik artists are invited to participate in international art events: Iatmul artist Claytus Yambon from Korogo travelled to London for the Hailans to Ailans exhibition at Rebecca Hossack Gallery in 2009; 2 Teddy Balangu from Palem-bei enjoyed a cultural exchange in 2006 with north-west coast First Nations arranged by Alcheringa Gallery of Victoria, Canada; 3 and David Yamap and Yarume Mambegiani from Kanganaman created monumental sculpted poles at both Stanford University in the United States of America in 1994 and at the Tjibaou Cultural Centre, New Caledonia in 1997. 4

The richness of the Sepik people’s lifestyle is made accessible through anthropological literature; in this realm the Sepik is one of the most studied regions in the world. The challenge to transmit the complexities of Sepik

Kawa GitaKwongombebowi 2010 (details)acrylic on canvas, 74 x 200 cmCourtesy the artistCommissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre

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societies, their profound knowledge and aesthetic wealth has resulted in great anthropological work, including studies by Gregory Bateson, Anthony Forge, Alfred Buhler, Paul Wirz, Christian Kaufmann and Margaret Mead.

Masterpieces of Sepik art have pride of place in Oceanic art collections in major metropolitan museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris and the British Museum, London. Australian museums similarly have world-class collections and the significance of these collections has been realised by major art museums such as the Na-tional Gallery of Australia, Canberra which will showcase the work in newly constructed galleries. 5

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The artworks presented in the Sepik River Project reflect the multiple contem-porary realities of Papua New Guinea. Another key curatorial concept of the Sepik River Project is the flow of the river connecting people, past and present.

The common perception of Papua New Guinean ‘contemporary’ art-ists is of urban-based, individualistic practitioners whose work engages with global concepts of the modern and contemporary while ‘tribal’ artists are per-ceived as producing ‘traditional’ artworks in styles inherited from their ances-tors. 6 The result of the curators’—myself and Jeffry Feeger—Sepik journey is to bring both the ‘urban’ and ‘tribal’ contemporary realities together.

Jeffry is a contemporary urban artist from Port Moresby and during his journey he encountered Sepik artists for the first time, sharing knowledge and techniques on an artist-to-artist basis and creating his own vision of the journey. My journey began with assembling photographs and documents from my own and other Australian’s past Sepik journeys. As a member of the Syd-ney-based Oceanic Art Society (OAS) 7, I contacted other members with long attachments to Sepik art and artists. Helen Dennett, a teacher who was based in Angoram during the 1970s–80s, provided me with albums of leading artists and their works, which I returned to Kambot. I also took film scripts and im-ages from the archives of my parents Percy and Renata Cochrane 8 to Aibom and Kanganaman, as well as books from the Tjibaou Cultural Centre to the Kanganaman sculptors who came to New Caledonia. 9

David SakaUntitled 2010Kambot acrylic on paper, 29.5 x 42 cmCourtesy the artistCommissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre

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Just prior to our Sepik River journey, with the invaluable assistance of Helen alerting us (from Sydney) of artists in Korogo and other Sepik villages, another Australia–Papua New Guinea network emerged, that of Rae Smart connecting us to Matarina Wai from Wewak and her daughters Asunta and Jill Bosro 10 who led us to their Kambot relatives. With these links, information and memories of past projects started to flow back to Sepik artists and their communities. As Jeffry and I arrived via canoe in the villages of Korogo, Kan-ganaman, Aibom and Kambot with the gifts of albums and books, a new cycle started. It is intended that this Australia–Papua New Guinea cultural exchange cycle will be continued with the return of the artworks acquired for the Sepik River Project to the Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery and of exhibition catalogues to all the participating artists. An exhibition is only a fragment, a reflection on art at a moment of time and place and this exhibition is a result of our Sepik journey, shaped by memorable encounters with talented Sepik artists.

Due to the lack of infrastructure—roads, bridges, airstrips, jetties—along the Sepik River, open canoes powered with outboard motors are the only form of transport to riverside villages. Constrained by a limited budget, short time and the size of the canoe, we restricted our trip to several villages of Iatmul people in the mid-Sepik region, travelling downriver to Korogo, Palembei, Yentchan, Kanganaman, Kamanambit and Tambanam, with a short side trip to Aibom on the Chambri Lakes and a longer stay at Kambot on the Keram River, a tributary of the lower Sepik.

Apart from the purely practical issue of transporting large objects, the decision to concentrate on acquiring paintings during our trip was taken be-cause Australian audiences are more familiar with the characteristic forms of Sepik sculpture and the artists’ facility with painting is neither well-known nor appreciated. The Sepik River Project provides scope to include the characteris-tic Sepik art form of painting with natural pigments on sage spathe. During the trip we collected the drawings and paintings made by Sepik artists using the canvas, paints, paper and pencils we brought with us and distributed to those interested in using these materials

The first artworks collected on our journey were paintings on sago spathe, which are commonly known by the Tok Pisin word pangal, but as these were commissioned and collected in Iatmul villages they are properly called by their Iatmul name, bowi. We commissioned two artists from Korogo Village to paint new bowi for the Sepik River Project.

Kawa Gita had been alerted of our visit by Helen and came downriver from Korogo village to the Korogo camp in the provincial capital of Wewak, which was our departure point for the Sepik River trip. He brought boards prepared for painting—several sago spathes that had been flattened, scraped, joined with cane twine and painted all over with black clay. Before depart-ing on the canoe trip we met Kawa who said he would stay in town to work on them while we were away and arranged with him to pick up the finished work on our return to Wewak. He explained that he would paint one of the designs called Mariman which is used for bride price ceremonies where gifts are distributed by the family and clans of the husband to relatives of his bride at the marriage ceremony. Large panels of bowi decorated with bride price valuables, such as shell rings, frame the entrance to the haus tambaran during the bride price ceremony.

When we arrived at Korogo, the first village visited on our canoe trip, we noticed a similar bowi bride price painting in the haus tambaran, but in a much deteriorated condition. We negotiated with the artist, Kami Sakat, to paint a new Mariman bowi and bring it down to Kawa at the Korogo camp in Wewak by the time we got back. 11

The large villages of Palembei No. 1 and Palembei No. 2 are on the opposite bank to Kanganaman and Yentchan but all are in close proximity, enabling us to make trips across the river from one to the other during the days we spent there. From Palembei we crossed the river to Yentchan where we had been told there was a large Mariman bowi the men of the haus tambaran were willing to sell. This Mariman bowi was part of a two-piece set made for bride price and also used for other ceremonies, the last occasion being in 2009 to welcome the Director of the National Cultural Commission, Dr Jacob Simet, to Yentchan for discussions on the construction of the new haus tambaran,

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as the existing one, which is some 30 years old, had collapsed. The Mariman bowi purchased at Yentchan, which was designed and painted by Tony Yombi, is the square ‘door’ placed at the entrance to the haus tambaran. Above it is placed a partner piece, triangular in shape with a mask at its apex and layers of bilas (decoration) composed of valuables made of shell rings, a headdress of feathers and bands of nassa shells, arm bands, a necklace of kina shells and fringes made from dried palm shoots. 12

The local government Councillor of Yentchan Alphonse Niamini ex-plained that the men wished to sell the Mariman bowi paintings from their haus tambaran to raise funds to build the new one. The men need to raise 30 000 kina in an area where cash income is very low. Previously the large trees required for the main house posts were found in the forest, but logging in the area meant that now logs have to be purchased at a cost of 600 kina a piece, which is a fortune in terms of the local level of cash income. The men of Korogo Village face a similar problem of raising money to build their new haus tambaran, as one of their leaders, Sonny Jimmy, explained while we were there. The leaders of both villages made direct appeals to us for donations to assist the major work of building their haus tambaran by funding the purchase of the logs. Sepik haus tambaran are acknowledged as treasures of Papua New Guinea’s national cultural property; in UNESCO terms they are of inestimable value as both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

As well as collecting paintings on sago spathe, we gave artists from Ko-rogo and Palembei the opportunity to paint with acrylics on canvas. Of the two two-metre lengths of canvas we had brought on the Sepik trip, one was given to Kawa Gita, to be collected along with his bowi painting when we returned to Wewak. This was the first time that Kawa, a senior artist from Korogo who is acknowledged as a master carver, had used acrylic paints and canvas; he is justifiably proud of his first painting on canvas, Kwongombebowi, 2010, which depicts Iatmul objects in his repertoire of sculptures and paintings.

The second two-metre long acrylic on canvas painting resulted from the day we had visited Palembei No. 1 and No. 2 villages, each of which has a haus tambaran. Jeffry had made quick pencil portraits of two senior artists,

and was observed by an interested crowd of men. As they were so interested, we gave out sheets of paper, pens, pencils and paint for the younger men to ex-periment with and Jeffry demonstrated an impressionistic painting. The young men were all initiated, bearing the marks of the crocodile across their chests and backs, so all had commenced their training in carving and painting, learn-ing from their elders. Apart from primary school, they had not used paints and paper as such materials are simply not available in these villages. Although it was a great success as far as workshopping new ideas went, this experimental drawing session had pretty woeful results. We left the long canvas behind for the Palembei men to make an astute decision as to who among them should paint it and with what subject.

The Iatmul are skillful and prolific carvers. The sculptures selected for the Sepik River Project are all related to the Iatmul creation story of the Crocodile-man and the initiation rite of scarification of the young men’s torsos with the marks of the crocodile.

Crocodile-man Initiation, 2010, was collected by us on our second day at Palembei No. 1 village. The carving of an uncle comforting his nephew during his initiation scarring is an innovative artwork, a contemporary Sepik piece. It is revealing of the question of ‘ownership’ in Sepik terms. The men who carved and painted of the work we purchased, Julius and Jumor Koni respectively, admitted that although they made this particular Crocodile-man initiation carving, they were not the originators of its concept and design; it was first conceived by an artist from Kanganaman named Ishmil Gromban. Once created, such pieces may then be interpreted by different carvers of the clan which owns the story.

The next day we went across to Kanganaman village and met with David Yamap and Yarume Mambegiani, both renowned sculptors of the Croc-odile ancestor story and international artists. This version of the Crocodile ancestor story was given by David and Yarume in 1997 when they created Nawakumban Pole for the Tjibaou Cultural Centre in New Caledonia: ‘The crocodile ancestor created the world using his own spit and beating the water with his mighty tail. This symbol-animal is the matchmaker for the ele-

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ments Earth and Water; he carries the world on his back. Protector of the group, the crocodile is also the custodian of the world of the dead, under the waters of the Sepik River’. 13

Due to the size and weight of major carvings and the limits of the canoe, acquiring large-scale sculptures on our Sepik trip was out of the ques-tion. The smaller-scale Crocodile-man model canoe was purchased by me from Phillip Sari Mainda when we reached the last Iatmul village on our trip, Tam-banam. It was carved by his father, Sali Sari Mainda, prior to his death in 1968. The shape reflects the fluid quality and spiritual power of the great river from which the primordial ancestors emerged.

In order to include these magnificent sculptures, we had arranged to loan some Crocodile-man pieces from Sydney-based members of the Oceanic Art Society. Among the artworks loaned for the exhibition from OAS mem-bers is one in the collection of Tom Arthur made by Abel (aka Apel) Paim-bum (deceased), who specialised in carving the famous Waken figures which capture the transformation of the Iatmul Crocodile ancestor into a human being.14 This description of Abel’s carving is supplied by New Guinea Gallery in Sydney: ‘This figure represents the first man, ancestor of all Sepik people. The Sepik River originally covered all the land and the first man in the form of a croco-dile lived in this area of water. He arrived near what is now the village of Ti-gaui and began to work the mud and built up some land. Many times he tried until the land was firm. He then crawled up onto the land and changed into a man, the first man. The face combines the strength of the crocodile (its jaws) with the strength of man (his head, or intelligence)’. 15

Another work loaned to the Sepik River Project is the prow of the large crocodile canoe, by an unknown artist, which, originated from the Ka-rawari River area, a tributary of the Sepik, or the Iatmul-speaking area of the Middle Sepik. The collector, David Said, comments on this piece,‘It was carved circa 1960 . . . Judging by the length of the prow, the canoe could have been up to 10–15 metres long and been paddled by 30 or more standing paddlers. The prow is unusual partly because of its size and partly

because it is not only carved on the top, but also has a protective carving un-derneath, looking onto the water, and is heavily carved at the sides’. 16

Leaving the Iatmul region, our Sepik journey continued down the Keram River to Kambot. Matarina Wai had come with us from Wewak and now guided our path to the Kambot community. Before we left Wewak she arranged to send the art materials we had purchased to Kambot, giving the artists time to start painting several days ahead of our visit.

The story of the Kambot paintings on paper starts in the early 1970s when Helen Dennett was a teacher at Angoram, which lies just below the junc-tion of the Sepik and Keram Rivers. She encouraged Kambot men including Simon Novep (deceased), Aklyas Pase (deceased), brothers, Zacharias Way-benang and Ignas Keram, and others to create works on paper from their repertoire of traditional subjects and carefully documented the artists and their artworks. Helen also collected the innovative carvings of Zacharias Way-benang, who confirmed to me that he was indeed the originator of the now fa-mous Kambot storyboards in 1973. At the same time his brother Ignas Keram originated the popular Big Meri mother and child figures.

We arrived at Kambot to find a painting session in full swing, with senior artists Zacharias Waybenang, Ignas Keram and Hubert Yambin sitting in groups with their sons and other younger artists all painting on the black canvas and black and white paper we had supplied. 17 The albums of photos prepared by Helen immediately created a stir of great interest and genuine ap-preciation. It was over fifteen years since her last visit to Kambot, marking the last time the artists were given western art materials to us. The albums con-tained images of the series of white on black paintings Helen had collected by Simon Novep, Zacharias Waybenang, Ignas Keram, Akylas Pase and others.

Although Jeffry had brought blue and other coloured acrylic paints, the Kambot artists preferred to restrict their palette to white, black, red and a touch of yellow ochre. Within two days, some 30 paintings and drawings of Kambot ancestral stories were produced, and the painting session was still go-ing when it was time to leave. The Chairman of the Kambot Art and Culture Group, Lazarus Tumblo, applied himself diligently to the tasks of collecting

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the finished paintings and packing them into the folder. Later Lazarus, Hubert Yambin and David Saka laid out the paintings in the order in which they are to be displayed.

There are no major artworks by women in the selection for this ex-hibition. This is not an oversight, but due to limiting our selection to certain types of objects—paintings on sago spathe related to bride price; paintings on canvas and paper of subjects that would normally be painted on sago spathe; and sculptures depicting the Crocodile-man creation story. There is a division in the gender roles of men and women in Sepik communities, and women do not paint or sculpt and cannot enter the haus tambaran. The women of Ka-manamabit and Mindimibit contribute to the art and cultural life of Iatmul communities by creating huge cylindrical woven masks and woven creatures which are worn by dancers during ceremonies, while the women of Aibom are famed for their pottery. Featuring the bride price bowi (paintings on sago spathe) in the Sepik River Project acknowledges the value of women in Sepik communities and the essential reference to the female in Sepik art.

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From the outset this exhibition project intended to show the multiple contem-porary realities of Papua New Guinean artists and their artistic environments. Just a week before the Sepik trip, Jeffry returned from the Shanghai World Expo. He had been responsible for the design of the Papua New Guinean exhibition within the Pacific Pavilion and relished the challenges to his own skills like painting to music in upbeat Shanghai nightclubs. The Sepik was a world away.

Within several hours at every village we visited, as soon as Jeffry started sketching, he had an audience. For Sepik artists who have not the op-portunity to travel out of their province, types of art other than their own are virtually unknown. Contemporary Papua New Guinean artists may be known from stories in newspapers, realistic images from illustrations in schoolbooks and murals in towns, but actually seeing a Papua New Guinean artist sketch and paint confidently with western art materials was quite a marvel to many

Herry WepnangUntitled 2010Kambotacrylic on paper, 42 x 29.5 cmCourtesy the artistCommissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre

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observers—painting with acrylics on canvas that we supplied was a ‘first’ for Kawa Gita and the artists at Palembei.

The artist-to-artist encounters were stimulating for Jeffry, Kawa, Ted-dy, David, Yarume, Ignas, Zacharias and many other Sepik artists. Jeffry has been invited back to Palembei to undergo initiation, and other villages wish to entice him back to teach painting and drawing while he learns to carve from Sepik master carvers.

Apart from Kambot, where it was planned in advance, giving art ma-terials to Sepik artists was not envisaged as a major activity of this trip, but it was soon apparent that any chance to use the materials was taken up by the artists with alacrity. All Sepik men who undergo initiation are taught to carve and paint as a necessary part of their ritual and ceremonial duties. Sell-ing carvings is also the main source of cash income, so most men spend hours making art objects. As in all cultures, some have more skill of hand and artistic vision than others but all handle their tools and natural pigments proficiently. Therefore it should not be surprising that many show skill with the transition to new art materials. Painting on two-dimensional surfaces is familiar as mak-ing panels of pangal or bowi is part of activity in the men’s house. The black paper and canvas was preferred as it is closer to the base colour of the surface of sago spathe.

Those familiar with the genesis of Papua New Guinea’s urban-based contemporary art movement in Port Moresby in the 1970s will see a rapport between the exhilarating and vibrant works on paper and canvas by Kambot artists working with western art materials for the Sepik River Project in 2010 and works from the 1970s and 1980s by artists like Wkeng Aseng, Watu Lopu, John Man and Cecil King Wungi. It was a major tendency among pioneering contemporary artists to make modern interpretations of traditional subjects and styles before becoming more experimental with style and palette. 18

Perhaps there is a perception that Sepik art and artists should remain remote from external influences and materials in the interests of protecting their characteristic art styles and cultural heritage. But, first consider the phe-nomenal efflorescence of Aboriginal art since the 1970s and the exponential

increase in the understanding of Aboriginal art and culture that exists as a re-sult. In the Sepik River Project, artists from remote communities, without the advantage of community art centres, funding or promotion, bring us a glimpse of the immense aesthetic wealth of the Sepik people.

Rudolf WepnangUntitled (Kambot Painting Experiment) 2010Kambotacrylic on canvas, 34 x 37 cmCourtesy the artistCommissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre

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1 According to ‘Sepik’, Wikipedia: The Free Encylcopedia, 2010, ‘biologically, the Sepik river system is possibly the most uncontaminated freshwater wetland system in the Asia-Pacific region’. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepik_River

2 For information on this exhibition, Hailans to Ailans: Contemporary Papua New Guinea Art, 2009. See www.hailanstoailans.com

3 For information on this cultural exchange, Alcheringa Gallery, 2010, Alcheringa Gallery: Contemporary Pacific Tribal Art. See www.alcheringa-gallery.com. A film titled Killer Whale & Crocodile, 2007, resulted from this exchange

4 Nawakumban Pole, 1997, sculpted for the Tjibaou Cultural Centre is described in Florence Klein and Emmanuel Kasarherou (eds), Jinu: The Spirit of Oceania, ADCK/ Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Noumea, 2003

5 The British Museum, the Musée du Quai Branly and the Museum of Modern Art also have new galleries dedicated to Papua New Guinean and Pacific art. The National Gallery of Australia opened its first Melanesian gallery with some Sepik objects in 2008

6 For an appreciation of Sepik art styles, see Christian Kaufmann in Adrienne L Kaeppler, Christian Kaufmann and Douglas Newton, Oceanic Art, Harry N Abrams, New York, 1997

7 OAS members were contacted with requests for loans of specific objects for the exhibition8 Renata Cochrane wrote and directed the films Women of Aibom and Men of Kangana-

man for the Territory of Papua and New Guinea Department of Information in 1964. Percy Cochrane made a large collection of ethnographic music for the network of local broadcast radio stations he established in the 1960s–70s

9 I was part of the curatorial team with the Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Noumea responsible for the monumental statues for the Jinu Gallery

10 With her extended family connections at Kambot, Matarina Wai was an unofficial guide and mentor for us during our trip and planning of the exhibition and we are very grateful for her assistance. Matarina is well-known in other Sepik communities for her work with Save the Children organisation

11 People travel by river then road from their villages to Wewak and other towns, but the trips are expensive and all transactions with artists needed to include the cost of return travel

12 We could not purchase this item due to Australian Customs regulations forbidding the im-port of shells and feathers. However, we made a video clip of the Yentchan village Councillor and other men decorating it with the set of bilas (decorations) used for ceremonies

13 Klein and Kasarherou (eds) 2003, p1214 Abel (Apel) Paimbum was born sometime in the 1930s in the Middle Sepik village of Yansen-

mungwa. The entire village of Yansenmungwa moved to Tigaui where he grew up and was initiated into the ‘crocodile nest’ having his back scarified to resemble crocodile scales

15 Geoff Carey, ‘Abel Paimbum, Latmul Master Carver of the Middle Sepik’, OAS Newsletter, Oceanic Art Society (OAS), vol. 6, issue 2, 2001, p. 7. Information on Abel Paimun’s carving is provided by the lender, Tom Arthur

16 David Said, in email correspondence, 30 June 201017 Helen Dennett advised us to take black canvas and paper as the Kambot artists preferred

this colour as a base. Traditionally, pangal paintings use a dark surface18 Hugh Stevenson, ‘Structuring a New Art Environment’, in Hugh Stevenson and Susan

Cohrane Simons (eds), Luk Luk Gen! Look Again!: Contemporary Art from Papua New Guinea, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, 1990

Artist UnknownMiddle Sepik Untitled (Canoe Prow) c.1960 wood, 248 x 42 x 30 cmCollection David Said, Sydney

Following pages:Susan CochraneSepik River Project Trip 2010photographs, dimensions variableCourtesy Susan Cochrane