ABSTRACT
The Ambonwari village is situated in a swampy area of East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG). It is the largest among eight Karawari-speaking settlements in the region. The village is an island surrounded by many creeks flowing through the dense sago forest. For these riverine people the most used ‘tool’ is a canoe. The staple is sago prepared as either pudding or baked pancake and topped up with fish, sago grubs and greens gathered in the forest. In 2011 there were 784 Ambonwari villagers, although not all of them lived in the village. Women (153) outnumber men (122). The majority of the village population are children and minors up to 18 years of age (406); 103 Ambonwari were
absent, living elsewhere. The 90 houses composing the village are lined up along two creeks. Each house has its own shore where the household members moor their canoes, wash dishes and clothes and bathe. Drinking water is fetched from a small creek near the village. The Ambonwari ancestors planted the coconut palms and rubber trees in and around the village. These trees and palms also mark the borders between the lands of different individuals, lineages and clans. The Karawari people, and the Ambonwari in particular, display many similarities with other Sepik societies with regard to visible and invisible domains of their lifeworld. David Howes (2003), in his book Sensual Relations, emphasised the importance of visual display and concealment among the Kwoma people of East Sepik Province. Howes (2003) pointed to the specificities of each of the five senses and their interplay when he compared the Kwoma of Middle Sepik and the Massim people of Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea (pp. 160-172). The Sepik people became known for their visual arts, paintings, masks and carvings in particular. The Abelam were one of the first Sepik societies to be recognised for their artwork (Forge, 1966; 1967; 1979). Forge (1970) focused on art as a form of communication and argued that Abelam paintings are a form of language: they mediate things that cannot be readily communicated by any other means (p. 288). The domination of men in this kind of visual communication is characteristic for the whole Sepik region. The best-known examples, until the Catholic Charismatic movement arrived to the area in December 1994, were the men’s houses and the spirit-things, which used to be kept inside these houses (for more on the Ambonwari, see Telban 1998, pp. 173-195; 2008). Women and children were prohibited to see the interior of a men’s house and the objects hidden within. They could see only the skin (exterior of a men’s house) but not its wambung (interior of a men’s house). Howes (2003) argued that ‘the men visualize the spirits (or in other words, make representations of them) and are in turn watched over by them’ (p. 139, emphasis in original). The Ambonwari women are expected to be responsible for raising the children. They learned to ‘sit well’ and ‘press down’ the spirit of the village living under the ground. There used to be a hereditary role of three ‘mothers of the village’ (Telban, 1998, pp. 17, 96-97; Vávrová, 2008). The aim of my research was, first, to expand our visual communication beyond customary practices, and second, to create audiovisual narratives together to be shared with the wider audience outside of the village. Men and women always had and still have their own secrets, which are gender specific and are not supposed to be seen by those of another gender. This orientation persists regardless of Christianity and the Catholic Charismatic movement (Telban, 2009; Telban & Vávrová, 2010) uniting male and female domains much more than ever before. The interplay of visible and concealed domains, however, remains the main drive not only for interpersonal relationships within the village but also in relation to the distant world and the worship of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
