The Extraordinary Values of Ordinary Objects: String Bags and Pandanus Mats as Korafe Women’s Wealth?

Korafe women, like the neighbouring Maisin, Miniafe and Ubir women, have long been recognised in regional and national contexts as coming from the Cape Nelson/Collingwood Bay area of Papua New Guinea because of their distinctive facial tattoos and barkcloth. Beyond this ‘ethnic’ or regional identity, these items of body adornment are also constitutive of the gender identity of the village women who wear and produce them (Barker 2008; Hermkens 2013). Like many other aspects of villagers’ lives, the practices and significance linked to tattoos and barkcloths have been transformed in the years since the incorporation of villagers into the colonial