Canoe Prow of Crocodile of Sepik
Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 9:09 pm
Life in the Sepik area in Papua New Guinea revolves around the river, with men paddling narrow dugout canoes full of goods for trade, women fishing or making sago and children joyfully swinging from trees to splash down in the river.
Crocodiles feature in the legends and rites of passage of various Sepik tribes, sharing a belief in ancestral ties to the aquatic reptile. Risks from mining in the upper river threatens the health of the people of the basin.
The Crocodile canoe prow came from the middle Sepik River. Canoes are the primary mode of travel on the Sepik and most canoes in the middle Sepik were carved with a Crocodile head prow. Crocodiles are common on the river and pose a high threat to the indigenous people. They are also one of the most powerful clan symbols. It is believed by the indigenous people that carving a crocodile head at the canoe’s prow will fool the real crocodiles into thinking it is one of their own, reducing the chances of being capsized by a crocodile. It is also used in some regions to honour the powerful predator. The prow is over a meter long and is painted with red and brown vegetable dyes in a chequered pattern.
Sepik natives worship the cult of the mightly Crocodile.Canoes are always decorated, the crocodile featuring strongly as this is central to the creation myth (as told by David Kirkland in The Last Great Frontier):
...Сreation began when the earth was only water, in which roamed a huge crocodile. It was the crocodile's excreta which formed the continents. Mankind's time on earth began when the crocodile gave birth to a single man.
For many years he traveled on the crocodile's back but as he grew older the man sought to break away from the crocodile's protective embrace. Eventually he decided the only way to gain his independence was to kill the crocodile which had raised him. While the crocodile slept the man picked up a large stone and crushed the crocodile's head. When faced with the sight of the dead crocodile, the man was filled with tremendous remorse and burst into tears. For weeks and months he cried until his tears became a sea. It was man's misery and his tears which formed the mighty Sepik River .
Papua New Guinea 1965;4d;4s;1,2s;SG 72;73;75. Papua New Guinea 1979;21t;SG ?
Source http://www.wilderutopia.com/traditions/ ... epik-river
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/a ... iver-papua http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/ca ... muTbm.dpuf
http://homepages.engineering.auckland.a ... odile_head
Crocodiles feature in the legends and rites of passage of various Sepik tribes, sharing a belief in ancestral ties to the aquatic reptile. Risks from mining in the upper river threatens the health of the people of the basin.
The Crocodile canoe prow came from the middle Sepik River. Canoes are the primary mode of travel on the Sepik and most canoes in the middle Sepik were carved with a Crocodile head prow. Crocodiles are common on the river and pose a high threat to the indigenous people. They are also one of the most powerful clan symbols. It is believed by the indigenous people that carving a crocodile head at the canoe’s prow will fool the real crocodiles into thinking it is one of their own, reducing the chances of being capsized by a crocodile. It is also used in some regions to honour the powerful predator. The prow is over a meter long and is painted with red and brown vegetable dyes in a chequered pattern.
Sepik natives worship the cult of the mightly Crocodile.Canoes are always decorated, the crocodile featuring strongly as this is central to the creation myth (as told by David Kirkland in The Last Great Frontier):
...Сreation began when the earth was only water, in which roamed a huge crocodile. It was the crocodile's excreta which formed the continents. Mankind's time on earth began when the crocodile gave birth to a single man.
For many years he traveled on the crocodile's back but as he grew older the man sought to break away from the crocodile's protective embrace. Eventually he decided the only way to gain his independence was to kill the crocodile which had raised him. While the crocodile slept the man picked up a large stone and crushed the crocodile's head. When faced with the sight of the dead crocodile, the man was filled with tremendous remorse and burst into tears. For weeks and months he cried until his tears became a sea. It was man's misery and his tears which formed the mighty Sepik River .
Papua New Guinea 1965;4d;4s;1,2s;SG 72;73;75. Papua New Guinea 1979;21t;SG ?
Source http://www.wilderutopia.com/traditions/ ... epik-river
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/a ... iver-papua http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/ca ... muTbm.dpuf
http://homepages.engineering.auckland.a ... odile_head