Large Rare chalk figure Iniet figure New Britain tolai papua new guinea

 Rare and large Iniet Chalk figure, 36 cm tall, collected 1970s in New Britain.

The Iniets is an  ancient and very powerful ineradicable secret society of Tolai people  (New Britain, Papua New Guinea). It had been fiercely persecuted already during German colonial days, but with very limited success. Even nowadays in Rabaul area, when asked about, Tolai people do not want to speak about Iniets. There is too much dark magic, secret practise attached to it. The colonial forces were mentioning  that Iniets were using Magic,  and were adepts of pederasty, lewdness, drinking of human blood and of course conspiracy against the occupying forces (Germans, Japanese, Australians).  Parkison in 1907, Meyer in 1911 are describing some of the aspects of Iniet secret society and rituals, but there are few information published.

Iniet uses many different art forms to represent ancestor and spirit entities. Famous Iniet artifacts include the Lorr skull masks, stone figures and wood figures.

The nearly 800 stone carvings in Dalhem museum had been collected by Thurnwald before WWI and published by Koch in the 1980s. There are some extraordinary Iniet carving that surfaced in the 1960s, like the 3.8m tall Marawot figure at Quai Branly in Paris. Tolai  art will become more known to the world soon : there is a very important exhibit in preparation, curated by Loed Van Bussel (Amsterdam).

Chalk figures, such as this one, where used in a wide range of ceremonial context.

There meaning is not clear, but they are supposed to be the receptacle of ancestral and tutelary spirits. They were kept in special houses, or buried in the sacred Marawot area and presented to the newly initiated on admission to the secret society.

I include a picture from a 1911 publication showing an Iniet initiated being presented a chalk figure of the same type, and other examples from the same publication.

Note that it is a fairly heavy stone figure. I put a provisional 70 USD for shipping. It will be adjusted depending on the address of the winning bidder. I ship at no extracost, no handling charges, just the post office cost (with insurance).