Papua New Guinea Canoe Alligator Wood Prow Handmade Carved Canoe Alligator Wood River Canoe Prow

This is a wonderful hand carved Wood Alligator Canoe Prow from Iatmul Tribe, Sepik River, Papua New Guinea. Alligators play a central role in the art and culture of the Iatmul people. According to Iatmul belief, an ancestral crocodile was responsible for forming the land. In the beginning, the earth was covered by a primordial ocean, into whose depths the crocodile dived. Reaching the bottom, it brought up on its back a load of mud, which became an island when it surfaced. From that island, the land grew and hardened, but it continues to rest on the back of the ancestral crocodile, which occasionally moves, causing earthquakes. Both now and in the past, the prows of most sizeable canoes are carved in the form of a crocodile. These canoes, hollowed from a single massive log, were also used for trading and fishing expeditions. Although canoes are no longer used in warfare, contemporary Iatmul carvers continue to make large canoes for use in trade and general transportation. This is a unique and wonderful canoe prow that would look wonderful in your home or in your collection.

22 1/2" long
9 3/4" wide top
3 1/4" wide bottom
3 1/4" deep

Collected in the field, shows much age and use, has chips and discoloration and a tribal repair on the back, Condition still good.

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