IDNO

P.9430.ACH1

Description

On Catalogue Card: “3 men making a canoe, Kerepunu.” [typed text]
“with stone adzes.” [manuscript in pencil]

On Catalogue Card for : B.N.G. 38.42.
Keapara - 3 men hollowing out a canoe, with stone adzes.

On Manual Listing: "55. Three men hollowing out a canoe with stone adzes." [typed text]

Three men, wearing waist belts, standing beside a half-formed canoe and using stone adzes to hollow out the interior of the log. On the left of the group is the edge of the forest, and a European-style building is in the background. [JD 15/9/2008]

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Wilkin, Anthony

Collector / Expedition

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

Date

circa 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: "55. Three men hollowing out a canoe with stone adzes." [JD 12/11/2021]

Related Archive: Image published in OA2/11/1, 'Canoes and Pottery Making, New Guinea', pl. 26a and captioned:
"26A. Hollowing-out a canoe with stone adze.
The trees of which the canoe are made grow up the Vailala river river [sic] and the Kalo men sell the lumber to the Keapara men, who tow it to their village. The outside of their canoes is cut with steel tomahawks obtained from the white man, but, at all events in the final stages, the logs are hollowed out with stone adzes. The blade of the adze can be shifted round to any angle by turning the holder on the shaft." [JD 22/08/2018]

Publication: Image published in Haddon, Alfred Cort; 1932. ‘The Head-Hunters: Black, White, and Brown’ (London: Watts), fig 12, p.112 with the following caption:
“Hollowing out a Canoe at Kerepunu”. [JD 15/9/2008]

Bibliographical Reference: Haddon writes of the making of canoes at Kerepunu in Haddon, Alfred Cort; 1932. ‘The Head-Hunters: Black, White, and Brown’ (London: Watts), pp.111-113 with the following information:
:One day we started in the early morning to visit Kerepunu (Keapara). On our arrival there, the sand beach in front of the village presented a busy scene; until now I had not come across such activity as was here displayed. Several canoes were being made, and not only was there continuous succession of chopping noises, but the sense of smell was also affected, partly by the smoke of the fires, but mainly by the very disagreeable odour given out by the soft wood as it is chipped by the adzes.
The trees of which the canoes are made grow up the Vanigela River; they are cut down, and their trunks are floated down the stream to its mouth. The Kalo men sell the lumber to the Kerepunu men, who tow it to their village. The outside of the canoes is cut with steel tomahawks obtained from the white man, but the logs are hollowed out with stone adzes, the stone blade of which can be shifter round to any angle by turning the holder on the shaft. It seems strange that these primitive shipwrights should prefer stone implements to iron ones for hollowing out the canoes; perhaps it is because they are frightened lest the sharper iron blade should inadvertently cut through the thin side of the hull. After the canoes are dug out and trimmed down they are charred by fires lit outside and inside them; the effect of this is to harden the wood, and I suppose to somewhat fill up the pores so as to make the craft more seaworthy. I believe that one result of applying fire to canoes is to make them open out more widely. Probably in precisely the same manner, save that no metal tool was available, our Neolithic ancestors manufactured their canoes. It was an unexpected pleasure to have this glimpse into the Stone Age.” [JD 15/9/2008]

Related Image: Same image held at the British Museum, reference number Oc-B101-39, (men digging a canoe out) with the following information:
"This image and an account of it are published in: Haddon, Alfred Cort; 1932; "The Head-Hunters: black, white, and brown"; London: Watts, pp. 111-112." [Source: Devoarh Romanek, British Museum Getty Project, JD 15/9/2008]