"Ropo" Star Pattern
"Omaro Ni'iri" Teeth of a Wood-Boring Insect
These are the beginning of a series of twelve basket patterns that were collected in the Purari Delta area of Papua New Guinea. Dr. Bell,an anthropology curator, is overseeing this project, and he explained that these baskets are some of the last remaining totemic patterns from this culture. Totems used to be guarded by the men, but as Christianity took over, villages destroyed images and patterns representing the old ways, and now these symbols are mostly seen in basketry, which is a women's craft. Ropo is a new pattern, and Omaro Ni'iri is a traditional pattern.
