Dance Masks

Listen to my story

This dance mask departs from a more conventional form and provides a completely different interpretation of dance masks but this is absolutely what it was used for in its home place of Muting village, Upper Bian River, Marind Anim, West Irian. Since being gifted to the museum in 2002, this most unusual mask has been in storage. It is a hollow fish form used during the ‘ezam’ ceremony. Note, part of the Dutch East Indies from 1828, West Irian was ceded by the United Nations to Indonesia in 1963 and renamed Irian Jaya (‘victorious Irian’) in 1973.
Measurement of object – l.237cm x w.19cm