Information about the exhibit
- Ethnicity: Papuans
- Place of creation: Indonesia
- Geographic location of place of creation: West Papua
- Material: Albizia wood, jute rope, feathers
- Technique: factory-made
- Size: length – 30 cm, width – 7 cm
- Date of creation: early 2010s
- Collector: private individual Pale Sofia Evgenyevna (1976-2024)
- Period of use: 2010s
- Usage: interior decor item
- Condition: good
- Keywords: Indonesia, peoples of Australia and Oceania, Papuans, West Papua
Historical and cultural commentary
The very light wood of albizia is used to reduce the costs of shipping souvenirs to different countries, and also so that the figurines do not weigh down tourists’ luggage. Indonesians take a humorous attitude toward their Papuan fellow citizens living on the Indonesian western part of the island of New Guinea, and create amusing figurines inspired by their tribal life. The series of figurines «Papuans» was produced in Indonesia from the early 2000s and was popular worldwide. Indonesians use the exotic culture of the Papuans to increase the flow of tourists to their New Guinea territories in order to attract additional capital into the coffers of the underdeveloped Papuan provinces. Revenues from the tourism industry sometimes reach 15-25% of the local budget.
