M0016053: Two Gope boards (Kwoi), New Guinea

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Photograph of two Gope boards, or Kwoi: wooden ritual objects that represent the spirits of ancestral heroes. Both boards feature human figures filled in in white. They were included in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum exhibition "Medicine of the Aboriginal Peoples in the British Commonwealth" held in 1952 and published in <i>Catalogue of an exhibition illustrating the medicine of the aboriginal peoples in the British Commomwealth</i>. They were purchased at auction by the Museum, the the smaller in 1933 and the larger in 1935. They were both accessioned in 1952 (accession numbers R1554/1952 and R1553/1952). They are not held by Wellcome Collection.

M0016053: Two Gope boards (Kwoi), New Guinea

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