Primative Art. Sepik River ,New Guinea.

Sepik River New Guinea.
Traditional mask woven mask, height top to tail approx 36ins.

Constructed of woven rattan and grasses with bird's feathers. The piece is then painted with natural ochers.

Front View of woven mask.

While serving in the merchant navy in New Guinea with Burns Philip I started collecting native artifacts and wooden sculpture. Often while some members of the crew were out collecting tropical fish for Taronga
Park Zoo in Sydney I would go walkabout. The ports of Madang and Wewak were best due to their relative proximity to the Sepik River region. The wickerwork head mask above  were worn by the Iatmul people . These masks are relatively rare since they could only be worn by the leader in initiation ceremonies into manhood.  When the Sepik River region was first discovered in the 1912 , the explorers were very surprised to find it inhabited by as yet an undisturbed native peoples.

Their art was considered as very significance, unfortunately the life span of much  native art works is fairly short due to the high tropical humidity resulting in  the disintegration of many wooden object. Due to this I have never felt guilty about removing work  to Australia. Many of the best examples from  this area  of New Guinea are now to be found in Berlin.

Wall Panel from the Men's House
150cms high x 33cms wide.
Painted  tropical wood carved in open high relief. Natural ochers are used.

Close up view of the above carving



Top section
Various tropical birds and animals are incorporated into these panels



Ancestor figure , Sepik River
33cms high.



Papuans and Melanesian in general believe humans have many souls. Often these souls linger around the grave before disappearing into the realm of the dead. The descendants often carve small figures for these souls to inhabit so as to assure their continued existence. These figures were kept in the men's house. Some times they would be given to a wise man for use in magic ritual.

Wicker Yam Mask. Sepik River
10ins high.

Side view of Yam Mask.

Ceramic Sculpture by Peter Kreet 1994



I produced a number of ceramic works based on New Guinea art during the 1990's
The above is an example, I only used earth colours particularly iron red the colour of blood and life.

Sepik cooking pot

Incised surface of the cooking pot.


These pot are made of earthen ware and hand modeled.
They are heaped in a pile and the fire is built over them.
Generally they are therefor very low fired, approx 300/400 degrees and are thus very fragile.