Instruments # Papua New Guinea Total: 71
 

Koa

  • Type Transverse flute
  • Origin Papua New Guinea
  • Materials Cane, Pigments, Shell, Vegetal fibers, Wood
  • Measures 94×9 cm
  • Dating 1940-1950

For the men of Papua New Guinea, the sound of the “sacred flutes” represent the voices of the ancestral spirits of the clan. They are always kept at home reserved for the sacred rites of the men, and only they can play them. Traditionally, the women of the village, children and the uninitiated cannot see or touch them. They are always played in pairs.
They are made of bamboo or cane. At one of the ends is placed – like a stopper- a woodcutting with human and/or animal representations. The figures may wear conchs, seeds, feathers and natural pigments.


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