Malagan is the name for the elaborate funerary ceremonies and feasts to honor the dead in New Ireland, and it is also the term used to describe the masks and sculptures made for the ceremonies. The eyes of most malagan masks and sculptures are made from the round, pigmented valve of a sea snail, but the eyes of this mask are obsidian. It may represent a ges spirit, a person’s spirit double that lives in the bush and is usually invisible. The powerful ges spirits were potentially destructive and might attack human beings who inadvertently saw them.

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• Tribal Trust, YouTube
  Watch Mathew Salle, a carver on Tabar Islands in Papua New Guinea, make a traditional malagan sculpture.

• Tribal Trust, YouTube
  Watch an interview of Edward Salle, a traditional owner of Malangan on theTabar Islands in Papua New Guinea.

• Khan Academy
  Read more about the malagan and see other examples of masks and sculptures.

• Encyclopedia Britannica
  Read about the climate, people, culture, and history of Papua New Guinea.

• Encyclopedia Britannica
  Learn more about the region of Oceania.

• National Museums Scotland
  Explore resources about arts of the Oceania region of the Pacific.