“These earrings made of turtle shell and suspended red (spondylus) shell discs come from the Massim area in Papua New Guinea. Each and every individual turtle shell ringlet has a small gap which is threaded through a woman’s stretched and enlarged ‘hole’ or piercing in her ear. She starts with one or two rings as a young girl and gradually adds more and more over the years until the ear lobe itself is stretched to look similar in shape to the custom-made mount for the pair of earrings – i.e. a thin stretched piece of skin through which all the little rings are looped. The larger attachments with the ‘Bagi discs’ made from red spondylus shells are hung onto the bottom part of the entire ensemble during special ceremonies (yam harvesting etc) in a show of wealth and prestige for the family to which the wearer belongs” (The Tribal Collective, Melbourne).
Earrings from Papua New Guinea
Share this: