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Bundi barkcloth butterfly dancers from Papua New Guinea

Figures 1: Bundi butterfly and flower dancers wearing barkcloth dance costumes at the 1995 Goroka Show. The butterfly costumes use the same barkcloth techniques as their traditional kaima dance costumes.

Figures 2: The butterfly dancer can move the wings on his costume by pulling cords on each side. The laplap and streamers are also made from barkcloth.

The dancers are Gende people from Bundi mission station. (1) The Gendes live on the mountainous fringe of the Highlands about 100 km northeast of Goroka. They are trading intermediaries between the Usino people in the Ramu River lowlands and the Highland Chimbu. They raise and trade sweet potatoes and pigs, along with shell ornaments and black palm bows. In pre-contact days, they traded stone axes.

Figures 3: Barkcloth butterfly dance costume painted with natural pigments. Photo courtesy of a private collection.

Kaima means song and is the most important of the four dance ceremonies among the Bundi. The costumes are made of barkcloth. A sing-sing is performed by a whole tribe or clan, but is owned by the man who made the main payment to purchase it. This leader knows all the songs, ritual, costumes and dances.

Barkcloth for kaima costumes is beaten out of white bark. Construction takes place in a hut in the forest. Women dancers come only after the costumes are completed by the men.

Figures 4: Barkcloth shield-shaped standard with flower design. Photo courtesy of a private collection.

The five types of kaima performers and their costumes are:

• Kovoi holds a pole decorated with barkcloth standards shaped around bamboo with 2 bird-of-paradise plumes on top. The pole represents the kovoi tree and the bird of paradise that live in it.
• Kape are narrow barkcloth cape-like pieces worn down the back by the bowmen and the women they are protecting.
• Kaura are small barkcloth skirts for the male dancers. They have brightly painted designs.
• Tagi are barkcloth shields. Barkcloth is sewn over bamboo frames worn on the back by the two shield men.
• Nakai narawa is an oval pole decorated with cockatoo feathers representing the beauty of the land, the forest and its birds. (from Bundi)

Figures 5: Young Bundi side dancer wearing a barkcloth mask with pig tusks and a barkcloth bag.

The Bundi were very adamant that only materials and colors from the forest were used in these costumes. They said the yellow come from a tuber like ginger, possibly turmeric? Bright red comes from the pulp in Bixia orellana seed pods. Black is usually charcoal or sooty ashes. Whites, yellow, red and oranges come from clays.

We have been given an olive-like seed from the grasslands that was a deep blue. The bush is said to come up in the rainy season, but we have not seen this documented. Mixed with other dyes, the blue would give the natural green and purple dyes that we have seen on some bilums.

Figures 6: Barkcloth flower dance costume, another style of flower is in Figure 1. Photo courtesy of a private collection.

SEE ALSO:

Links in this site:

• Barkcloth (tapa) in Oro Province includes short description on making barkcloth
• Baining dances and bark cloth masks
• Tolai tubuan and dukduk masks includes barkcloth masks
• Papuan Gulf Masks includes barkcloth masks
• Angu/Kukukuku shows Angu barkcloth capes

Books used to research this article.

• Bundi, the Culture of a Papua New Guinea People
  by David G. Fitz-Patrick and John Kimbuna
  published by Ryebuck Publications, 1983, ISBN 0-9591786-0-0
  61 Price St., Nerang, QLD, Australia
  The Bundi live between the Ramu River and the Highlands. This book, one of whose authors is a Bundi, gives an overview of the village life of a people in transition. Barkcloth photos and/or text on pp. 9, 112, 113, 116-118, 125-128.

Notes

(1) Alternate spellings and terms for:

• Bundi: Gende, Gendes, Gendeka language group

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Artifacts on this site were collected in the field by my husband, Ron Perry. I take the photographs, do the html, text and maps. Background in Who We Are. Art-Pacific has been on the WWW since 1996. We hope you enjoy our New Guinea tribal art and Indonesian folk art as much as we do.

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