Doll Item Number: 3610/10 from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Plastic doll standing with hands at sides. The doll has dark brown skin with synthetic black hair and brown eyes that open and close; it has a headband with three rows of small grey shells and a headdress with three tiered layers of plant fibre - in red, purple and natural (front to back, small to large). There are lengths of bark woven into the hair. The doll has a loosely woven cloak with horizontal pieces of wood(?) inserted throughout, with a bark cloth cloak layered overtop; also dark brown woven arm and leg bands, a chest band, and a skirt of twisted fibre over a red loin cloth. The doll wears strings of small grey seeds twisted from the neck around the shoulders and then back around the waist.

Narrative

Collected by the donor in 1976-1980, when she and her husband were living in Bougainville, where her husband worked as a mining engineer; some of the pieces were gifted to them.