Tatanua Masks and Maori Beliefs in The Bone People

By Helen Bush

http://www.beloit.edu/logan_online/collections

http://www.beloit.edu/logan_online/collections

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=new+ireland+papua+new+guinea

http://www.randafricanart.com

http://www.randafricanart.com

http://www.randafricanart.com/Tatanua_masks.html

• Tatanua- “crested helmet type” of Malaggan mask

• Malaggans- yearly ceremonies performed in honor of the dead, conducted from May to July

• representations of the spirit of dead people

• representations of living individuals

http://www.daniel-estrade.com/Oceanic/NewIreland/Tabar/ind.htm

http://blogs.panda.org/coral_triangle/2010/06/14/malagan-tatanua-masks-of-kavieng-new-ireland-png/

• Traditionally made away from women and children

• “I used to carve a lot, and one of the old prohibitions was,

while engaged in a carving you did not lie with a woman…because all the energy was tied up…” (266).

• Masks were destroyed at the end of the ceremonies

• “I carried out the rest of her commands, but it hasn’t seemed sufficient. She buzzes back in the back of my head like a bluebottle sometimes” (353).

• “The ‘tribe’ does not exclusively consist of the living . Since the dead ancestors hold power which transcends that of the living, they are highly revered” (Raeke).

• “Sometimes there are very good reasons for their persistence in our world. Sometimes we have failed them” (353).

http://www.daniel-estrade.com/Oceanic/NewIreland/Tabar/ind.htm

http://www.daniel-estrade.com/Oceanic/NewIreland/Tabar/ind.htm