- Buk mask
- Torres Strait
- mid to late 19th century
- turtle shell, wood, fiber, feathers
Torres Strait Culture
- located between Papua New Guinea and Australia
- dark skinned Melanesian people
- linguistically aborigine and Papua New Guinean
- universal kingship system
- totemic belief myths
- turtle-shell masks for celebrating cultural heroes
- main myth of creation
- four brothers divide up
- Malu cult
- secret rituals
- with sacred “Wasikor” drum
- shown through buk masks
Buk Mask
- show the creative acts of culture heroes
- initiation and funeral rites, celebration of harvest
- performed in the dark using campfires
- intended to impress and terrify
- traded with other communities for various ceremonies
- composite human and animal
- specific mask has frigate bird, problably totemic species
- turtle-shell plates
- patterns infilled with white ochre
- animal and human figures
- feathers and rattles
- dressed with human hair
- carapace shell is heated and molded, stiched
- variety of European materials