Papua New Guinea · Musical Instrument Making
Kundu (hourglass drum, Tok Pisin generic term); Garamut (slit drum)
The making of two related but distinct Papua New Guinea wooden drum types: kundu, a portable, hourglass-shaped, membrane-headed hand drum made and used across most regions of the country; and garamut, a large, horizontal, hollow slit drum played by striking its exterior with sticks rather than a stretched membrane, historically serving as both a musical instrument and — through its documented capacity to transmit specific rhythmic messages over distances of many kilometers — a functional long-distance communication technology. This record closes a complete musical-instrument-craft gap in the archive's existing 5-record Papua New Guinea collection, which documents fiber looping, wood carving, bark cloth, shell carving, and mask-making, but no instrument tradition. Both drum types are fire-hollowed from a single log — burnt and scraped from the interior through a carved slit or opening — with kundu additionally requiring the fitting of a stretched animal-skin membrane (traditionally sea snake, monitor lizard, cassowary, pig, or shark skin, and in some regions introduced species including dog, cow, deer, or goat) over one or both ends. Garamuts in particular are documented as treasured, individually named cultural objects that can substantially outlast their makers — one documented example, photographed stored beneath a Kwoma village house in 1973, was relocated decades later into a newly-built men's house opened in 2016, having outlived the original structure entirely.
Risk level: Endangered · Not Listed
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