Plaited ear stick covered with red and yellow orchid stem fibre binding
Bamboo-stick ornament for the ear, patterned with plaited vine-strip of red and yellow. This type of ear ornament, worn usually in a hole in the earlobe, is characteristic of Malaita, known in Kwara'ae language as 'patterned bamboo' (fa'i 'au gwaroa) or 'reed' (fa'i rade). The red is coconut-frond cuticle stained with Indian Mulberry (Morinda), the yellow is orchid stem, see Burt, Akin and Kaw’ioloa, 2009, 86-87.
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