Hemlout mask

The impressive double mask seen here was acquired on the Gazelle Peninsula, part of the island of New Britain, during the Hamburg South Seas Expedition. This research trip, undertaken from 1908 to 1910, was organised by Georg Thilenius, the first full-time director of the museum. A large part of the museum’s collection of artefacts from the islands of the western Pacific dates from this journey. Produced by the Sulka people, this type of mask is known as o hemlaut (old man) and is characterised by its large umbrella-like feature. Its decorative painting is only briefly shown during the performance of the masks. In conversations in recent years, mask specialists of the Sulka have related that the pattern seen here symbolises a rainbow, and that the figures under the umbrella portray a man and a woman. Despite the vibrant mask tradition and its great significance in the cultural life of the Sulka, this hemlaut type with two heads was nearly forgotten. In the revival of its production, photographs of this particular mask provided the mask makers with important information.