Wooden ancestral figure wearing a feather headgear

Spirit
A korwar’s main purpose was serving as a receptacle for the spirit of a dead ancestor. Papuans believed that the spirit of a dead person would hover around in the area and could be a harmful influence on the living. Making korwars also involved ceremonies accompanied by ample supplies of food and drink. When the figure was finished, generally by a mon, a leading religious authority, the spirit of the dead person had to be enticed into the korwar. This could take days. If the mon fell on the ground during one of the ceremonies while holding the carving, the sign was given that the spirit had entered the figure.

Sacred objects
Relatives looked after their korwars with great care in their homes. They treated them with respect, made offerings and hid them from strangers. Korwars were a segue between the living and the dead. For the living, the dead were still important inhabitants of the village, and powerful guardians. They would ask their ancestors for help in war and in headhunting raids, voyages or major food-gathering expeditions, as well as if disease or some other crisis struck. Sometimes they brought their korwars. And if an ancestor provided no help, or helped only partially, they might sell or destroy the figure.

Taste
Little is known about this korwar. Opinions differ regarding the plumage and the small fence behind which the figure stands, and none are completely satisfactory. The previous owner, collector Georg Tillmann, probably did not acquire the carving for the wonderful stories that accompanied it, but rather for its appearance: the feathers, the finely carved features and the remarkable fence. Tillmann presented the figure on loan to the Tropenmuseum in 1940 (then still the Colonial Museum). In 1994, his heirs turned the loan into a gift.

circa 50 x 14 x 16cm (19 11/16 x 5 1/2 x 6 5/16in.)

Source: collectie.tropenmuseum.nl