Anthropology museum to collect tribal art
By Amy Geiszler-Jones
 Jerry Martin, director of the Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology, inspects an Asmat carving of ancestor figures. Martin will be heading to the Asmat region of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, later this month to begin an Asmat tribal art collection for the museum. |
WSU’s anthropology museum, which reopened recently, has been given the rare opportunity to start a cultural art collection by sending an expedition team to the primitive region where the art is created.
Jerry Martin, director of the Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology, will leave later this month for a two-month expedition in the Asmat region of the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya. The province is the western half of the island of New Guinea, the second largest island in the world. It lies just below the equator, about 90 miles north of Australia.
There Martin will visit the tribes that live in the foothills of the Jayawijaya Mountains, where the ground is constantly squishy because of the tides that roll in. It’ll be hot and humid, ideal climate for the plentiful mosquitoes. As one might guess, it’s a place far removed from modern amenities.
And despite those harsh, rugged conditions, Martin is relishing the opportunity made possible by a gift from WSU donors Barry and Paula Downing, who share his love for Asmat art.
The Downings gave an undisclosed gift for the Holmes Museum to start what they hope will be one of the top three research collections of Asmat art in the United States. The most famous is the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Michael C. Rockefeller Collection, named for the son of Nelson Rockefeller who disappeared on an expedition to the region in 1961.
"It rarely happens that American (anthropology) museums collect from the field and start a major collection from the beginning where you can control the quality and you have the provenance of an item," says Martin. Provenance is the origin and history of an item. "Many collections donated to museums end up being wonderful pieces of art, but without that information they have little research value."
The Asmat are a Stone Age culture who practiced headhunting well into the 20th century. Since the first recorded sighting of the Asmat people in 1623 and explorer Captain James Cook’s landing in the region in 1770, the Asmat have had limited but increasing contact with Western cultures.
Individuals traveling to the area must receive a special invitation from the province’s highest-ranking government official. In fact, about 13 years ago on a trip to Papau New Guinea, Martin had hoped to visit the Asmat but was denied permission. A private guide, introduced to him by the Downings, is arranging this current expedition. The Downings visited the region three years ago.
The Asmat still practice many of their traditional customs – except for headhunting. Their most enduring tradition is elaborate woodcarvings.
Many carvings are created in honor of ancestors or as part of ceremonies and have spiritual meaning. The Asmat are known for their spectacular shields, drums and ancestor, or bis, poles. The bis pole, carved from one mangrove tree, can stretch as high as 25 feet. A part of the root is left on the tree and it creates a sort of wing at the top of the pole.
During his trip, Martin hopes to fill a 10-by-40-foot container with some of the larger items created by the Asmat, including bis poles.
"We’re also very interested in the day-to-day items they use and not just the artistic, but anything that represents their culture.
"It’ll be a complicated expedition logistically," Martin says. They’ll have to travel into the region by canoe. Guide Patti Seery, who has been to the region numerous times, will help locate tribes that have recently had or are preparing for ceremonies. Once they’ve been used in a ceremony, most items have outlived their usefulness to the tribe, Martin explains.
Martin has had a longtime interest in the cultures and art from the South Pacific and has traveled extensively in that region.
He and the Downings discovered their mutual interest during a conversation after the Downings returned from their trip to Asmat. The Downings had spent three weeks in the region and later hosted a group of Asmat carvers traveling through Wichita.
"We’re wrapped up in different art and different people," says Paula Downing. "We like to travel and see the diversity of the world."
The Downings had acquired a few pieces of Asmat art, displayed in their Wichita home and Barry Downing’s office at Corporate Lodging, a business he owns. They had talked about collecting more "but there’s only so much a house can hold," says Paula. They approached Martin with the idea of starting a collection at the Holmes Museum and offered to fund the trip. "Now we can do something we wanted to do and share the art," Paula says.
Martin had hoped to take WSU students on the trip but the area’s political instability would make it too risky, he says. The Indonesian government’s forced resettlement of people from overcrowded islands and independence movements have created some political unrest.
Students, however, will play an important role in the Asmat collection, as they will be involved in cataloging and recording the items once they arrive by freighter in the late fall.
