IDNO

P.9428.ACH1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Hollowing out a canoe, Kerepunu."

On Manual Listing: "42. Two men hollowing out a canoe by alternate chipping with stone adzes. The man to the left is holding a bamboo tobacco pipe." [typed text]

Place

Oceania Melanesia; Papua New Guinea; Central Division; Southeast Coast; Kerepunu [British New Guinea]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Wilkin, Anthony

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort [Cambridge University Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits and Sarawak, 1898 - 1899]

Date

7 June 1898

Collection Name

Mounted Haddon CollectionTorres Strait Island Expedition

Source

Format

Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Related Archive: In folder FG1/1/9, a listing of Haddon's lanternslides provides the following caption: "42. Two men hollowing out a canoe by alternate chipping with stone adzes. The man to the left is holding a bamboo tobacco pipe." [JD 12/11/2021]

Related Archive: Haddon writes in his 1898 journal: “Tuesday June 7th. Started before 8 in English’s whale boat to go to Keapara (Kerepunu).43 After a long and heavy row for the police, English determined the wind and tide were too strong and so the sail was set and we ran down to Kalo. After a short stay we walked for 8 miles along the sand-beach to Kerepunu where we were very hospitably received by Tau and his wife, South Sea teachers. Had afternoon tea and went to the village. First we saw the operation of canoe building and made photos. The trees for the canoes grow in the Kalo country. The Kalo men cut them down and sell the logs to the Keapara. The latter dig out the canoes by means of stone adzes, the stone of which can be shifted round at any angle by turning the holder on the haft. The canoe builders prefer stone-implements to iron ones for hollowing out the canoes; it was most interesting to see neolithic men at work.
We were fortunate enough to buy several of these adzes and between the lot of us we have quite a number of adze stones which we purchased chiefly at Babaka – many for a stick of tobacco apiece.” (p.113) [JD 11/03/2020]

Publication: Image published in 'Recording Kastom: Alfred Haddon’s Journals from his Expeditions to the Torres Strait and New Guinea, 1888–89, 1898–99', Edited by Anita Herle and Jude Philp (Sydney University Press), Fig 5.13, and captioned: "Men making canoes. Kerepunu, 7 June 1898. MAA N.37936." [JD 10/03/2020]