FEATURE In 2015 the National Gallery of Australia HUNSTEIN ART Eight Garra in the Collection of the National Gallery of Australia By Crispin Howarth 92 held an exhibition of Sepik River art titled Myth + Magic: Art of the Sepik River. This exhibition did not include the art of the Bahinemo and Sanio people of the mountainous Hunstein Range region that lies to the south of the Middle Sepik, but an unexpected result of the exhibition was the generous gift of three Bahinemo “hook” carvings known as garra. These were fi eld collected by Sir David Attenborough in Inaro village on the Salumei River during the making of the BBC documentary A Blank on the Map during the April River patrol of May–June 1971 led by Laurie Bragge, assistant district commissioner of Ambunti. These hook carvings are surprisingly rare (although the National Gallery now has eight), and Sir David’s gift has prompted the display of all eight examples in the museum’s galleries. FIG. 2 (below): Cover of Philip Goldman’s Hunstein Korowori illustrated with the notable garra now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Published by Gallery 43, London, 1971. Image courtesy of Kevin Conru. FIG. 3 (right): Garra. Probably from Gahom village, Setifa River, Hunstein Range, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. Collected by Wayne Heathcote; ex Philip Goldman, c. 1969–1970. Wood, pigment. H: 74.5 cm. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, inv. 2011.952. This very old example is an intermediary form that is almost of the “mask” type. FIG. 1: Map showing the Hunstein Range and surrounding river systems. Cartography by Polaris Cartographics (polariscartography.com). Carvings with vertically opposing hooks can be found across cultures of the April River, the Hunstein Range, and the southern fl oodplains of the Sepik-Ramu region. These include the fl ute masks and fi gures of the Romkun, Rao, and Breri people of the middle Ramu and Goam River; the one-legged yipwon fi gures of the Yimam (fi g. 5) and the highly abstract aripa fi gures of the Inyai-Ewa of the Korewori (Karawari) River (fi g. 4); the aforementioned garra of the Bahinemo of the Hunstein Range; and the komkii and alakei of the Sanio of the April and Wogamush rivers. While each kind of object mentioned above is distinct, there is continuity of form, especially among the peoples of the Korewori River westward to the Wogamush River, all of them speakers of the Sepik Hill family of languages. This article deals primarily with the garra hook carvings of the Bahinemo, who live in the Hunstein Range and along the Sitipa (Setifa) and upper Salumei (Sarome) rivers, although sometimes we must rely on accounts recorded from related Sanio sources just to the west to aid our understanding. THE AREA AND THE PEOPLE The Hunstein Range is a northern outlier of the Central Range situated southwest of Ambunti on the Middle Sepik River. To the west are the April and Wogamush rivers, which are inhabited by the Bitara and Sanio ethnolinguistic commu-
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