"[M]any carvings, particularly ancestral figures, were made for ceremonial occasions, after which they were broken up and placed within the fields of sago in the swamps so that the spirits therein might nourish and protect the trees." (Schneebaum in Smidt 1999: 90) Kawe figures were specifically created during the construction of a new men's house and subsequently abandoned following the inauguration ceremony.

Provenance:
Sotheby's Paris. December 5, 2003: lot 74.
Collected by Jac Hoogerbrugge c1960