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1884.114.115

Narrow wooden mourner's mask with cylindrical bark headdress attached by string.

On display

1884.114.115

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Collection type
Object
Description
Narrow wooden mourner's mask with cylindrical bark headdress attached by string.
Cultural groups
Kanak
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1884
Date collected
Prior to 1884
Acquisition information
Donated: 1884
Materials and processes
Material Wood Plant, Material Bark Wood Plant, Material String, Material Palm Leaf Plant, Material Pigment, Process Carved
Dimensions
Height: max 435 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1884.114.115 PR Cat other PR nos: ? 3319
Research and responses

This mask was seen by Emmanuel Kasarhérou, Président of the Musée du Quai Branly, during a visit in September 2024. He described how the slim wooden face was designed to resemble a dead person and was a very old style of mask likely dating to the 18th century. In later masks the nose becomes elongated and exaggerated, whereas in this mask the nose is relatively small. Worn by adult men, the mask was placed high on the head and was part of a complete costume which concealed the wearer's identity. Like all Kanak masks the eyes are not perforated, instead the wearer would have looked out through the hole in the mouth. The palm bark headdress tied to the wooden face is a later addition and not part of the original mask, possibly added in order to trade or sell the mask to Europeans. In its initial form the mask would have been adorned with a beard of human hair and a headdress surmounted by feathers, plant fibres, and hair cut from the heads of mourners. The wooden face is perforated with at least five holes through which the beard and wig elements would have been fixed. Such masks are associated with the lives and authority of chiefs, who wore them at important gatherings. In the mourning rites of chiefs, masked dancers appeared as substitutes for the deceased leader. These kind of masks were first recorded by the French explorer Jacques Labillardière in 1792. When missionaries met the Kanak people they thought the masks were representations of devils and tried to stop their use. As a result few were made after French colonisation of New Caledonia in 1853.

Search terms: Mask

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