Bamboo Engravings
Bamboo is used to make various objects which prove the existence of an ancient tradition. Bamboo engraving was a method whose main purpose was to hand down certain facts from generation to generation.
The « elders » carried the engraved bamboo and in this way could explain the victories or toils of their ancestors. Bamboo decorated with geometrical motifs existed from the end of the XVIIIth century but most of the bamboo engravings depict scenes inspired by the European presence. Located mainly in the north of the Mainland and in particular in Canala, these expert engravings depict the traditional civilisation and its contact with the one from Europe which arrived on canoes with huge sails.
The utilisation of bamboo in Kanak culture
Bamboo was used to make a large number of objects such as knives, arrow tips, baskets, and hoop nets, to contain water and in the construction of shelters, and of rafts to cross rivers. Musical instruments were also made out of it. The women used it to make combs to put in their hair.
Bamboo engraving and its localisation
Engraved bamboo is called kare e ka meaning material that has been drawn.
Bamboo engraving
Engraving techniques require great dexterity. The bamboo which is slippery and woody needs considerable skill to work it. To draw a precise line on the oldest bamboo was obtained by using rudimentary tools such as a piece of quartz or the tips of crustacean pincers.
The Kanak engraver would quickly adopt improvised metallic tools.
When the work is finished, the artist coats the scene or the decoration with a grease obtained by the carbonisation of the "bancoule nut". This oily, dark mixture then penetrates into the lines and blackens them.
The uses and reading of engraved bamboo
Engraved bamboo has been used for two things :
- First of all, it was used as a travelling stick in which magic herbs were placed. These were supposed to bring good luck to the traveller who was going into unknown territory or to the person who had to undertake something important. This use has long since disappeared.
- From the first contact with Europeans, it became a real picture book replacing written text. This is why there are so many scenes depicting everyday life. The Kanaks in this way wanted to relate the events which had a great impact on them, whether it be due to their originality, their novelty or their importance. Each bamboo relates a single story. Each scene is linked to the previous one and cannot be understood without the other.
Localisation
The most frequent localisation is the village of Canala. In fact, although it was only a simple military post at the time of the taking of possession in 1853, Canala became a small town which went by the name of Napoléonville. In 1859 Canala became a military post with regular links to Nouméa. It is therefore a place where contact was the most frequent between the world of whites and that of the Kanaks.
Engraved bamboo can also be found in the regions of Houaïlou, Koné, Poindimié, Nakéty and the Isle of Pines.
The scenes depicted and the different motifs
The engraved bamboo in New Caledonia, 3 to 6 cms in diameter, is decorated over the whole surface by intertwined scenes.
However, these are not everyday scenes but rather exceptional events in the existence of the community, such as funerals, hut construction, turtle fishing, ceremonies with the "pilou", yam harvesting, canoes, battles …
They also depict the extraordinary spectacles the arrival of the Whites brought to them : houses, costumes, horses, deer, boats, telegraphs, weapons…
Bibliography
| « Le bambou gravé kanak » | Editions Parenthèses (Roger BOULAY) |
|---|---|
| « Sculpteurs et peintres kanak contemporains » | ADCK |
| « La Nouvelle-Calédonie aujourd’hui » | Editions Jaguar (Arlette EYRAUD) |
| « La découverte du paradis Océanie » | Editions d’Art |
| « Les bandes dessinées des canaques » | Editions Mouton (Eliane METAIS-DAUDRE) |