homecoming

Papua New Guinean sculpture, carved at Stanford.

The bird with a crocodile tail is from the central myth of Kura – a woman marooned on a lake who is saved by a crocodile. She marries the crocodile, lives in his underwater home, and has two children that can transform between eagles and crocodiles, the two main symbols of male physical and ritual power. In this sculpture, one of the children carries their mother Kura back to her village.

Works like this are typically placed on the high roof points of Iatmul spirit houses.

“You saw us and you thought we were from a wild area – the jungle. You didn’t know us and we didn’t know you. But now we know each other and we are brothers. Now we are friends.”
– Kwospi Marek, closing ceremony