Emblem of a bug or bumblebee dema, worn on the head of a dema performer

Dema
Demas are central to the religious experience of the Marind. Each clan has a primeval creature as its ancestor. It may be a kangaroo, or a crane, or an insect, as here. A dema may also be a plant, fire or a celestial body. In short, everything that exists now originally stems from a dema. Marind clans hold creation rituals every one or more years, with participants depicting their own dema. At these rituals, they act out what their dema did at the beginning of time. And during the ritual they wear costumes like this. A key aspect of a dema costume is the depiction of the actual dema. This usually appears on the head or back of the wearer.

Cooperation
Clan members can only portray their clan dema at creation rituals. Since the creation story features many different demas, the various clans - each with their own dema - have to cooperate in the ritual together. These ceremonies are therefore an important channel for maintaining relations between the various clans.

Seeds
For years, the Tropenmuseum’s dema costumes remained in a box in the museum attic, where the carpenters had apparently left them. When the box was opened in the 1990s, what the curators found was a pile of costumes in a sea of red, white and black fruit stones. Dema costumes are not made to last for ever, so the loose stones had to be repaired with natural rosin. Subsidies enabled a team of restorers to ensure that the stones are now once again part of the costumes.

circa 74 x 86 x 15cm (29 1/8 x 33 7/8 x 5 7/8in.)

Source: collectie.tropenmuseum.nl