| Description |
Among the spirits who inhabit Awiakay land are manjime, bush spirits who dwell in fig-trees. Before felling a fig tree, the spirit of the tree needs to be informed, and all the climbing plants and roots carefully cleaned, lest the person who is felling the tree be punished by the spirit by being bitten by a snake, cutting their leg with an axe, buried by another falling tree, etc.
It is not part of Awiakay understanding of manjime that these spirits would need any kind of ladders to get to the fig-trees where they live. However, string figure designs, which are like vignettes of Awiakay cosmology, utilise artistic expression, and thus often step into the imaginary.
When the final design of this string figure emerges, the figure-maker moves it up and down indicating the fig-spirits throwing down (and pulling up) their ladder.
Image: Darja Munbaŋgoapik, ‘the ladder of a fig tree spirit’
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