Mourning cap from Papua New Guinea

In the Gogodala people’s territory in Gaima, Papua New Guinea, men normally wore braided, stiff tapered caps (díba) day and night, glued to their skin and hair. During a period of mourning, a mesh cap or mourning net (atíma) was worn instead, covering the whole head like a bag. It could also be folded so that the face remained free. The length of the net depended on the family relationship between the deceased and the mourner.

In 1910, Gunnar Landtman made a journey through the Gogodala territory from Gaima to the Bamu River together with the pastor of the London Missionary Society, B. T. Butcher. Unfortunately, the travellers were almost drowned by a tidal flood and many of the artefacts that Landtman had collected during the journey were destroyed. However, some fifty Gogodala objects collected by Landtman were acquired by the National Museum of Finland, and they constitute the first collection from this people. In the past, only occasional objects had been preserved from them.

A mesh cap made of vegetable fibre, worn at funerals and during mourning by both women and men.

VK4902:146, 1910. Photo: Timo Syrjänen, 1978.