Lot 117

Acquired from Wayne Heathcote (1973)
Extract from letter from Wayne Heathcote 'To the best of my knowledge the KARAWARI Hook Is stone carved, I bought it as such, and the people at the time held the piece in very high ceremonial importance, and were reluctant to part with it."

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, describes these figures as; "Local oral tradition describes the origin of these distinctive images. When the spirit of the Sun, who formerly inhabited the earth, was carving the first slit gong (a large musical instrument), the pieces of wood chipped from the carving came to life as spirits who lived with the Sun in the men's ceremonial house. One day these spirits killed one of the Sun's male relatives and drank his blood, after which they stretched themselves out against the
wall of the house and turned back into wood. Angered by their act, the Sun ascended into the sky while the Yipwon remained on earth as patron spirits of warfare and hunting. Large Yipwon images such as this one were owned collectively by clans, while smaller portable examples were individually owned and served as amulets, carried in net bags by their owners to bring success in hunting and battle."