| Description |
Tawak ‘sago pounder’ is one of the most frequently used locally made tools.
The trunk of a fallen sago palm is cut into shorter sections of no more than 3m, which are usually divided between relatives. Part of the trunk is the taken to the nearest creek, to a site where the starch can be extracted, and split into halves. The soft, fibrous pith is then pounded with tawak, a wooden adze whose end is reinforced with a piece of pipe. In pre-contact times, a stone blade was fastened to the wooden haft.
Tawak is made by men, but as it is customary among the Awiakay that men help women pounding sago, it can be used both by men or by women. It can be found in every house in Kanjimei, and being such a common tool it is often mentioned in myths, as well as in songs. When people make drawings, they often draw a man and a woman going to pound sago, the man carrying bow and arrows, and the woman carrying the sago pounder.
When the final design of this string figure emerges, the maker imitates pounding sago, saying “tay waroŋ, tay waroŋ, kisi waroŋ, kisi waroŋ, mambo ariŋ, mambo ariŋ…” While tay waroŋ means ‘pounding sago’, the rest is nonsensical, and therefore untranslatable.
Images:
02: Darja Munbaŋgoapik demonstrating pounding sago with the pounder_01
03: Darja Munbaŋgoapik demonstrating pounding sago with the pounder_02
04: tawak ’sago pounder’
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