TRIBAL COSTUME JEWELLERY AS WALL/DECORATIVE HOME DECOR
Our Tribal Art Designs are inspired by the local tribes from Melanesia, Pacific Islands, South East Asia & Africa. The traditional tribal jewellery, from these regions, normally used as ceremonial attire, are extraordinary designs with fascinating historic tales to tell about the hands that shaped them, what, where & when they used for and what materials they shaped from.
So for instance is our the tribal necklaces from Papua New Guinea inspired by the “Bilas” ceremonial attire from the Papuan Highlands. The island of New Guinea, lies just north of Australia at the far eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago, where the Coral Sea becomes the South Pacific. The land mass is split right down the middle into two roughly equal pieces: the country Papua New Guinea on the right on a map and two Indo provinces, Papua and West Papua, on the left of a map. In here I am referring to the whole island really. The old Malay word ‘pua-pua’ {or ‘frizzy-haired’} is said to have been the root of the name Papua, inspired by the hairstyles of the islanders. Later on in the 16th century Ortíz de Retes, the Spanish explorer, coined the term ‘Nueva Guinea’ referring to these same people’s similarities to the inhabitants of Africa’s Guinea region. The two names then splurged together to form the delightfully exotic-sounding Papua New Guinea.
Before colonial governmental intervention, men’s customary everyday wear consisted of a sihi (plant fiber breechcloth or perineal) held in place by a woven or stiff bark belt, and accompanied by woven arm and ankle bands. Men’s clothing was strictly functional, constructed from common plant materials like banana fiber; processed pandanus leaves and various inner tree bark fibers.
Customary ceremonial dress for men was a combination of elegant jewelry, fiber decoration, elaborate headdresses and stylish coiffure. fierce, high swing that exposed the tattooson their buttocks and thighs. The primary skirt material was obtained from the leaves of the sago and other local palms, which grew in abundance along the coastal areas. Banana stem, hibiscus and coconut leaf were also used occasionally, but they were not as supple as sago palm fiber. To obtain the soft pliable, one half of a millimeter-wide strands needed to produce full, animated rami, women often engaged in a five-to-seven day process. Each palm leaf section was removed from the main petiole, or middle stem of the large mature palm frond. The leaves were than soaked in fresh or seawater, to obtain a light tan color or dried in the sun to produce a rich orange brown or deep gold color, when dried. The leaves were shredded from the tip to the base of the leaf, leaving a small portion intact at the base. Fibers were occasionally colored with various mineral and plant-based dyes that were complementary to the natural fibers colors. The fibers were bundled into small workable segments for dying; some segments were dyed completely while others were tied so they would produce horizontal stripes, a color block or a checkerboard pattern. Plain panels of fiber were interspersed with dyed and tie dyed segments to provide a series of decorative motifs. Skirts with color panels were often worn over plain skirts to provide a fuller profile and a more animated swing. The common method of dyeing consisted of soaking or rinsing the fibers in fresh water, cooking small batches in dye, and finally rinsing and drying the dyed fibers. The primary colors used in Motu Koita and south coast skirt decoration were red, yellow, green and black. Red and green were the common colors used in customary dance skirts, while black was primarily used with lighter tan fibers for funerary ceremonies. Permanent black dyes were difficult to produce, as most plants produced a dark grey. Turmeric produced yellow; red dye was obtained from the fruit of the pandanus and Bixa Orellana plants; green from the buge and Panicum sarmentosum plants and black from Adenostema hirsutum plant mangrove tree leaves or wild banana sap. The skirts were constructed on a foundation of twisted bark fiber cord, which also served as an adjustable skirt tie. Small segments of one hundred and ten to one hundred and five skirt-length shredded leaf fibers were secured by a square knot before being attached to the waist cord. The segments were attached to the foundation cord by a combination of knotting and tying the fibers over and into the cordage, making sure that smooth, equal length segments of fiber were evenly attached. After each segment was secured on one end by a square knot, a small remnant (about 5 centimeters) remained; this material was than used to create a decorative ruff that accented the skirt waistband. The ruff was often colored to accent the skirt design and highlight jewelry, such as the decorative kappa or roro (a filigreed turtle shell medallion attached to a circular bailer shell base). As a finishing touch, skirt-length pandanus and banana leaf streamers were also attached to the top of the skirt ruff.
Pre-World War Two, jewelry, full body tattoos and an ubi completed the women’s dance costumes. While the women displayed less jewelry than the men, they did wear a combination of different types of necklaces made from kina shells, dogteeth, toea, doa or decorative seeds. They also wore shell or woven cane bracelets on their upper arms to which they added decorative pandanus and banana leaf streamers as well as flowers. Ankle bands made from matching streamer materials and completed their ensemble. The ubi was usually worn low on the forehead forming a feathered halo that framed the woman’s face. A combination of different length, colorful feathers from birds such as the Parrot and Cockatoo were carefully woven into a semi-circular cane framework. Ubi were commonly two or three layers, with the shorter, brighter feathers immediately on the forehead, with contrasting medium length feathers sandwiched between the lower and top layer of longer feathers. The longest feathers are usually white and clipped into decorative designs to enhance the halo effect. Women often added flowers, dots of facial pigment and feathered earrings of complimentary colors to mbellish the ubi and complete the overall profile
Natural seashells have played a really important role in the trade networks and ceremonial traditions of Papua for a long long time.different items were traditionally used as currency in different parts of the island, with pigs and the Money Cowrie shell taking precedence over the lot of them. Pigs were {and still are, I think} a really really big deal – any form of interaction that involves status requires partial payment in pigs, such as bride prices, tribal debts and ceremonial occasions. However lesser-valued {yet more framing-friendly} items included bird feathers, fruit bat teeth, coloured soils, pig’s tusks, nassa shells and dog teeth. Even now in Papua New Guinea people sometimes pay for goods in markets with cowries. Banknotes and coins are seen as a relatively new phenomenon, and people often prefer to own goods such as weapons or pigs as opposed to money itself. Cowries – the shells were often strung in factors of ten on pieces of cane or rope, and the further from the coast they were taken the higher their value: a whole string would be traded for a family’s dinner on the coast, but in the highlands far away from the source people who had never set eyes on the ocean would take them out one at a time.
Almost all of our tribal necklaces feature the beautiful cowrie shell, as well as the ubiquitous black nassa. There were also two other important forms of traditional shell currency: the Kina and Toea shells. The kina shell is cut from the gold-lipped pearl shell, and often has small circles and/or scratches along its edges to draw attention to its shape. It is usually strung with a cord featuring seedpod decorations or with just a simple carrying cord. Really old ones are sometimes given their own name which is carved into the back of the shell, and you can tell how many owners these ones have had from the number of knots tied in the cord. The terms kina and toea live on in the modern currency of Papua New Guinea, which replaced the Australian dollar in 1975: 100 toea coins make up one kina. The one kina coin even had a hole in the centre, mimicking the old toea shells.
‘Bilas’ is, to all intents and purposes, Papuan bling. The word is said to have derived from the English ‘flash’, and describes the traditional jewellery, clothes, make up [well, body paint] and other ornaments used to decorate oneself for a ceremony or sing-sing festival. Basically the more bling, the more powerful and proud the tribal group, so everyone tries to outshine their neighbours as best they can. Bilas items comprise necklaces, nose pieces, headbands, chest ornamentation, armbands, headdresses and bracelets. A bewildering range of flora and fauna go into these accessories: cowrie shells, bird of paradise feathers, porpoise teeth, ferns, kina shells, bamboo, seedpods, crocodile teeth, toea shells, pig tusks, flying fox teeth, vines, nassa shells, trade beads, coral, dog teeth, orchids, beetles, fur, bark, croton leaves and in the old days smoked human fingers, sometimes still attached to their owner’s hand. Actually apparently still to this day bones of deceased relatives or vanquished enemies are worn to take advantage of their spiritual power.
I’ve sourced a few of these bilas -inspired designs for PURE SOUL collection, featuring many many shells, seed pods, feathers, coral (wash up, not ripped-from-a-reef), wood and even teeth. Some parts of a few of the necklaces might actually be really quite old but we do not know for sure so are calling them all ‘inspired by’ to be safe –