Paddle Lake Sentani West Papua Irian Jaya Indonesia

A Finely Carved Old Women’s Paddle from Asei Village on Lake Sentani on the North Coast of West Papua Irian Jaya Indonesia. Women’s paddles on Lake Sentani are the most beautifully decorated on the slender blade of the paddle. Carved from a single piece of hardwood and the leaf shaped paddle blade is carved in low relief stylised fish and other clan designs. Each clan has specific designs and anyone from Lake Sentani would know the clan & family that the paddle belonged to.  In the 1980’s I spent months staying in villages on and around Lake Sentani, the people are very warm, kind and generous when staying in their homes. I bought many old paddles during my time there, Paddles are very much a technology that were in use to propel small canoes for fishing or travelling from village to village on the Lake.  Lake Sentani art is very special in that it is quite different than other areas of the island of New Guinea, their art is soft, gentle and not aggressive like other art  areas of New Guinea like the Sepik or Asmat.   Please have a look at the Lake Sentani Bowls on my website.

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