DKH01-042_opum - Opum ‘Pigeon’

Full description

This string figure represents a pigeon (TP balus). The pigeon most commonly found on Awiakay land is Zoe Imperial Pigeon (Ducula zoeae). Along with several other birds which are occasionally shot for food, pigeon is mentioned in one of the songs of Kaunjambi, the iconic Awiakay all-night song-dance cycle (Hoenigman 2015a: 229). This string figure can be made in two different ways, each involving a transformation from another figure. At the beginning of the video we can see the maker starting with the design of a pig (yay). She then continues ‘to hold the pigeon’ (the name of a certain stage in string figure-making), after which the design of a pigeon (opum) emerges. The second part of the video shows the other way of making the ‘pigeon’, this time starting with the final design of mema injua kumapa ‘the enormous vulva of a dead woman’s spirit’, then transforming it into opum ‘the pigeon’, which is later turned into wanday ‘the chicken’. Images: 02: Darja Munbaŋgoapik showing the final design of opum ‘pigeon’ 03: opum ‘Zoe Imperial Pigeon’ (Ducula zoeae) . Language as given: Awiakay