Description |
Sago grubs are a delicacy, and an important part of the Awiakay diet. While they are usually boiled and eaten with sago pudding, they are sometimes threaded on a rope and smoked. Preserved in this way they last longer, and can be taken to another bushcamp, or to another village for trading.
This string figure represents threading the grubs. When it is finished, the maker says: “I’m pulling them off now”, and pulls the string to undo the pattern, as if pulling the sago grubs off a skewer, one by one.
Images:
02: wao toiplakay ‘thredaing sago grubs’ string figure design
03: wao ‘sago grubs’
04: wao toimba ‘threaded smoked sago grubs’
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