23 DN152
Dennis Nona Pyban 2009
Etching on Lenox 100 paper 140x200mm image, 390x490mm paper $700
Kuik (human skulls) were used as currency in the Torres Strain and were traded with coastal people from western New
Guinea (now the Indonesian Province of Papua). Important skulls were retained on the islands for rituals and ceremonies.
Onto this skull the image of a baby boy is incised. In early times, during such a ritual, the elders would scrape bone from
above a skull’s eyebrows, make a paste from the powdered bone and feed it to a baby boy. This treatment prepared the
boy to become a powerful warrior.

Medium: Etching
Edition size: 45
Printer: David Jones & Tadeusz Jacek Rybinski
Studio: Under the House of Art
Plate created at: Under the House of Art, March 2009
Print published: Brisbane, March 2009
Paper: Lenox 100
Paper size: 390mm x 490mm
Image size: 140mm x 200mm