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Created from the buttress root of a mangrove tree or other
rhizophore, each shield is constructed from a single piece of
wood and measures five to eight feet in height. The front
surface of the shields is decorated with bold, carved and painted
designs of stylized forms representing flying foxes, whirlpools,
and the curved shell nosepiece worn by many Asmat to symbolize
the tusks of a wild boar. In the past, bone and shell were
used to carve the designs, but today, metal tools are
commonplace. Only three colors are used for painting the
designs: white, black and burnt-orange. Each has a magical
as well as decorative significance to the Asmat — white
represents the human spirit, black signifies body hair, and
burnt-orange is used to outline scarifications and to separate
white from black. Each village supports its own group of carvers. The carvers within the same region share their own characteristic shapes as well as design motifs. The different regions all use some form of human body representation of their shields, and some carve the top of the shields to represent a human head.
In 1958, the first four American Crosier
missionaries, belonging to an Order of Roman Catholic brothers
and priests, went to live among the Asmat. Since their
arrival, the Crosiers have been actively involved in an
internationally recognized effort to retain the rich cultural
traditions and protect the endangered natural resources of the
Asmat people. In 1973, in an effort to preserve and
encourage traditional crafts, they opened the Asmat Museum of
Culture and Progress in Agates, the main Asmat village. In
addition, in 1995 the Crosiers opened in the U.S. the American
Museum of Asmat Art to showcase Asmat carvings and artifacts,
make available anthropological information, and generate greater
awareness about the Asmat people and culture.
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The artists who created the works of art shown here own the
copyrights to them. send comments or questions about the gallery to
the curator at: |
Boldly painted and
carved shields are the most significant and powerful artistic
expressions of the Asmat, a semi-nomadic people who inhabit the
dense, coastal rain forest along the southwest coast of Irian
Jaya, Indonesia. Created as part of their centuries-old
tradition of wood carving, the shields are art objects as well as
a rich source of ethnographic information about the Asmat
culture. A focused exhibition of twelve 20th century
shields has been drawn from the Crosier Collection of the
American Museum of Asmat Art, St. Paul, MN. Shedding light
on a culture little-known to most Americans, the exhibit Ancestor
Shields of the Asmat has been touring since January, 1996. 
Until this century, there was little
contact between Asmat and the West. In 1793, the Dutch
gained sovereignty over Asmat and all of the western half of the
island of New Guinea, located in the Pacific Ocean just north of
Australia. However, they did not begin exploring the region
until 1902. The first government post was established in
1938, abandoned in 1942, and not reestablished until 1953 when
Dutch missionaries arrived. Since 1963, the western half of
New Guinea has been part of Indonesia and is called Irian Jaya.