Wasikor and Nemau

The two sacred drums of Malo were Wasikor and Nemau; the latter was burnt by the crew of a boat in the 1860s. Wasikor, in the keeping of the Noah family, is made out of a single piece of wood 1.43 metres long and the tympanum is 20 cm in diameter. It has a jaw at one end finely decorated. The sacred drums were sounded in the Malo-Bomai ceremonies.

Keywords: ceremony, Malo, wasikor

Re-enactment of Malo-bomai ceremonies. The man wearing the Bomai mask is Day Day and Day Simbolo is holding the sacred drum wasikor.
Author: Sharp, Nonie
© Courtesy of Haddon Collection, Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.