IDNO

T.151659.RPT

Description

On Catalogue Card: "239. S.P. New Guinea. Gumine. 35mm.Ekta." [Poignant's manuscript]
"37. Family group preparing food." [Poignant's typed text]

A family group from Gumine of two women, including Kuma-ire, sitting down with her legs outstretched, and two boys, including Kaleku (also known as Martin) Kuma-ire's son, wearing blue shorts and holding a bow and arrow. They are heating up hot stones, with a large wooden cooking pot ready beside them. [KK 16/08/2022]

Place

Oceania Melanesia; Papua New Guinea; Highlands Region; Chimbu Province; Gumine District; Gumine [Simbu Province]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Kaleku (also known as Martin); Kuma-ire

Photographer

Poignant, Axel

Collector / Expedition

Date

1969

Collection Name

Poignant Collection

Source

Poignant, Roslyn

Format

Colour Transparency

Primary Documentation

Other Information

T.148696.RPT - T.152693.RPT were located in the drawer file of transparency sheets, numbered C1021/.

T.151652.RPT - T.151674.RPT were located in a transparency sheet, numbered C1021/125.

Publication: Similar images published in Poignant, Axel and Roslyn. 1972. Kaleku. London: Angus and Robertson, p.7, 17. [KK 16/08/2022]

Bibliographical reference: Poignant, Axel and Roslyn. 1972. Kaleku. London: Angus and Robertson, p.17. This extract comes from a children's book, written about a boy named Kaleku and his family in Gumine: "Each day, in the early afternoon, life begins to stir in the village. The women return from weeding the gardens and gathering the food, and start to prepare the evening meal in front of the women's houses.
That afternoon, Erita and Grandma washed and peeled the vegetables and places them on clean banana leaves. Meanwhile, Mother heated some stones on a very hot fire. Quickly she filled the wooden cooking pot with the hot stones and layers of vegetables protected by banana leaves, placing the soft greens to the top of the pot where it was coolest. Then she poured some water into the pot and covered it with more banana leaves, tying them down tightly do that the steam could not escape.
When the men returned a few hours later the dinner was ready." [KK 16/08/2022]

Facebook: Detail from image published on PNG, Photo History, Taim Bipo group on 23/02/2023 with the caption: "Kaleku and his mum Kuma-ire wait for the cooking fire. A large wooden cooking drum is next to them and their pet Cassowary chick is lurking in the garden. Gumine, Chimbu, 1969. Photo by Axel Poignant, Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology."
303 Likes. 8 comments including:
A great photo here and what made this photo important and special is the hollowed wood (log) in the photo.
This looks more like a drum but its made of wood and is made by chieseling the core and burning off to create the open space (tunnel) right through. Its carved out in the forest and taken home for mumu and becomes part of the kitchen ware and was never left behind when a family is moving to a new location. It was an important item before the appearance of white men. With the arrival of pots/pans and metal drums these wooden mumu hollowed logs are gone. I don't think you will find one nowadays. [...] In the Kuman dialect of Simbu province we call it 'modono'. They no longer are found in the northern parts of Simbu. The 44 gal drums have substituted them perfectly. But several are found and still in use in the southern parts of the province, [...] I am sure this item will be gone in a few years time." (Arnold Mundua) [KK 15/08/2023]