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Sarah Chinnery (1887-1970)
Scene from the Dukduk Ceremony, New Britain 1929
Phorograph reproduced courtesy of the Chinnery family

This ceremony, performed on the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain, Papua New Guinea, is a ritual of the Dukduk Secret Society.

The Dukduk is supposed to be a spirit of the forest, and wages a powerful influence in native life. Women, children and uninitiated are not permitted to see it, and there were death penalties for those who infringed its rights or discovered its secrets unlawfully ... There are two deities in the ceremony: one is called Timbuan ... the mother of the Dukduk; and the other is called Dukduk. Both these deities - bad tambarans or debildebils - completely hide their identity behind huge conical masks that fit straight on to their shoulders. No trick or personal turn of the head can betray their identity - just as the heavy enveloping mask of leaves hanging from the shoulders completely conceals the shape of the body beneath.

- diary entry for May 1929, from Malaguna Road: The Papua and New Guinea Diaries of Sarah Chinnery, the National Library's latest publication.

(See story 'The Remarkable Mrs Chinnery', pp 7-10 this issue.)

 

July 1998 Volume VIII Number 10

RELIGION AND REBELLION IN CHINA: THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY COLLECTION

Andrew Gosling highlights a key holding from Asian Collections

THE REMARKABLE MRS CHINNERY

Kate Fortune introduces the woman at the centre of the Library's latest publication

SOME AUSTRALIAN LETTERS OF LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP

John Thompson looks at the art of letter writing in Australia, including some fine examples held in the National Library

JAMES NORMINGTON RAWLING: 1898-1966

Stephen Holt profiles a pioneering Australian radical

CHINESE AUSTRALIAN ORAL HISTORY PARTNERSHIP

Diana Giese describes a new initiative for an ongoing National Library project

FRIENDS

A regular news page about the activities of the Friends of the National Library of Australia

UPCOMING SEMINAR

Malthus and His Legacy: 200 Years of the Population Debate

Download Cover to Cover (5.27Mb)

 

 

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