Rare Chubwan Mask from Poinkros Village, Vanuatu

A Rare Mask, Poinkros Village, South Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, (nineteenth century or earlier), carved hardwood, 32.5 cm high. Provenance: Private Collection. Acquired from above by Dr Peter Elliott in the 1960s. This mask was collected in the late 1960s (with another by the same artist in the possession of DK Wilkins) from Father John, Anglican priest, then an old man. He said it had been passed down to him by an ancestor from long time before. Chubwan are carved from hardwood with a domed forehead and pierced septum through a bulbous nose. The nose reveals a long-neglected practice on Pentecost of nasal piercing, or it may be a vulgar caricature of people from adjacent islands who continued this practice into the early twentieth century. Very little is actually known about the true purpose of chubwan as tradition associated with this mask ceased long ago. We can only speculate as to whether such masks were worn for public festivities or ritual events, although many believe that the masks were worn at events based on the association of men and yams. The wearing of this mask may have offered some form of spiritual protection-as is the case with masks from neighbouring Malakula Island, which were worn to protect the living from the spirits of the dead. Regardless of the chubwan's enigmatic function, the artist skilfully created a face that would frighten and intimidate. The deeply undercut brows and the ridge of the lower lip are prominent under the light of a torch, as Felix Speiser, a visitor to the area in 1910, noted in his book Ethnology of Vanuatu: '. such a face, seen in the semi-darkness of the forest by the light of flickering torches, must have had a frightful enough effect'.1, 1 Crispin Howarth, Pacific Arts, artonview, issue 69, 2012