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"Gawi - Eagle Tribe"
A Sepik Legend. The "short" story as told by Nanias Maira.
Long ago lived a woman who married a crocodile. She lived with her husband under the water. This woman give birth to an egg. She stored the egg in a clay pot. One day the claypot burst and a strange looking creature with the head and body of an eagle and the tail of a crocodile popped out of the claypot. She took care of the creature as her first born son.
The creature grew and grew and was so huge. One day when they were alone the mother told her eagle son that there is a sky above the water. The eagle son really wanted to know what this place was so the woman, his mother, took him to the surface of the water. As he saw the sky he flapped his wings and flew into the sky. But before he took off, his crocodile father appeared and cut off his tail so he could never return.
The remains of his tail multiplied into first crocodiles of the Sepik River.
The End.
A Sepik Legend. The "short" story as told by Nanias Maira.
Long ago lived a woman who married a crocodile. She lived with her husband under the water. This woman give birth to an egg. She stored the egg in a clay pot. One day the claypot burst and a strange looking creature with the head and body of an eagle and the tail of a crocodile popped out of the claypot. She took care of the creature as her first born son.
The creature grew and grew and was so huge. One day when they were alone the mother told her eagle son that there is a sky above the water. The eagle son really wanted to know what this place was so the woman, his mother, took him to the surface of the water. As he saw the sky he flapped his wings and flew into the sky. But before he took off, his crocodile father appeared and cut off his tail so he could never return.
The remains of his tail multiplied into first crocodiles of the Sepik River.
The End.
Q & A with Nanias Maira
We asked Nanias to share a little bit about himself and his life as an artist.
Here's what he had to say.
Here's what he had to say.
What was the first piece you sold and how did that happen?It was a clay face model and my grandfather sold it to a tourist.
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How did you start making art & why do you make it?In my childhood days, I really feared our ancestral images but I wanted to know if they were real or not. This curiosity and drive to examine and explore these images led me to become an artist. |
How do you think art can shape and influence culture?It's a complete circle. They don't exists without each other.
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Some of Nanias' other works
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