Cultural Crafts

 One of the crafts taught during cultural heritage week is mask making.  Students start with a block of wood on which they draw the pattern.  They fashion the block into a mask and paint it. 

One way to remove the extra wood is to carve or file away the parts not needed before sanding it smooth.  The picture you see to the left is one of the young men who is working on smoothing and removing excess wood.

 The picture to the right shows a mask further along in the process.  The face is carved out and the mask has more shape to it but he still has to hallow out the inside.  Eventually, he'll finish it by painting it so it has personality.

The young man, next to the one showing his mask is carving out the inside of the mask so it looks like a real mask. These types of masks are made to hang on the wall. 

Many students finish their masks in the three days but others have to take it home to finish.  Fortunately, many have parents or relatives who help them finish.

 The two photos above show students working on creating their fishing hooks.  The photo on the left shows the young man wrapping the hook with string to keep the three individual barbs together to form the hook.  The photo on the left shows a young person who is still smoothing out and bending the wire into one of the three hooks. 

These are the local native hooks.  They are bigger with more barbs than the normal ones.  People attach these to a fishing line which is tied to a thick stick.  They don't use regular fishing poles and they do not cast.  They just drop it into the water, jiggle a bit, until they snag a fish or two.

I'm hoping to share dance videos on Monday from earlier this week.  Hope you've enjoyed this.  Let me know what you think.