| Description |
This string figure represents the roots of tomba, a large swamp forest canopy tree Campnosperma brevipetiolata (Anacardiaceae), in Tok Pisin oil diwai ‘the oil tree’, sometimes also known as ‘tigasso’.
The Awiakay tap the tree for its oily substance known as ‘tigasso oil’, which is used for impregnating bows and arrows (Hoenigman 2007: 86), as well as a remedy for healing wounds. As such it was also used in female initiation rites, following a girl’s first menstruation. After the time spent in a protective enclosure, her mother’s brother would take
the girl back into the house, where her mother’s classificatory brother would scarify her chest or back, as well as his own chest. The cuts were deep, and some flesh was cut out. The purpose of this custom was that substantial bleeding would mean the girl would lose the blood she got from her mother while in her womb and make place for the new blood to develop. It was considered that the skin was cut by spirits. The wounds were then rubbed with tomba oil and with betel pepper (Piper betle), which prevented infection (ibid.: 56).
The oil tree has a prominent place in Awiakay mythology where it often symbolizes the men’s house. According to one Awiakay myth, there were only women at the beginning of time and they married dogs. When one woman found a man by seeing his reflection in the water, she kept him for herself, but later this man created other men. He closed them into a tomba tree, which is a symbol for a men’s house, where they were to mature, and become ready for marrying women (ibid.: 41). When they all came out, this tree (the first men’s house) turned into a stone, and gave name to a place Tombakopa, nowadays the main camp of the Meakambut people.
Images:
02: tomba kunda ‘roots of the oil tree’, final design
Hoenigman, D. 2007. Language and Myth in Kanjimei, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. MA thesis, Ljubljana: Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis, Ljubljana Graduate School of the Humanities.
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