National Coconut Day: Art by Papua New Guinean artist

National Coconut Day was started in 2019 by the Coconut Coalition of the Americas to publicize the many health benefits of the food, aside from as a sweet baking staple. The artists of New Guinea are among the most prolific in the South Pacific when it comes to sculpture and other art forms, and this ladle is proof of that!

June 26 is National Coconut Day: Art by Papua New Guinean artist

Papua New Guinea, Ladle, early 1900s, wood, coconut husk (“coir”), and coconut shell, 43.2 x 12.7 cm   © 2026 Brooklyn Museum (BMA-1585)

By embellishing every object in everyday life with art, it has been traditionally believed to bring the world of the spirits into active participation with the world of humans. Since the world of the deceased and the world of the living are thought to be interconnected, representation of spirits in everyday utensils is part of the universal act of spirit reverence. The parrot or cockatoo headed figures may represent transformed spirits of the deceased, or may be totemic bird spirits.

Background
 
Oceania is a vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean that covers one-third of the earth's surface.  Contained in Oceania are the cultural-geographic areas of Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Melanesia includes New Guinea and the islands that extend eastward as far as Fiji and New Caledonia.

 Some 27,000 years ago, people from southeast Asia settled the islands north and east of New Guinea. By between 4000 and 7000 BCE they were cultivating the land and raising animals.  The settling of the rest of Melanesia is thought to have been part of the spread of a culture called the Lapita. The exact origins of this culture is up for debate, as is the extent of their colonization efforts.

New Guinea, divided between Irin New Guinea (part of Indonesia) and Papua New Guinea, is the location of the most heterogeneous cultures in Melanesia. It is also the island of the most diverse artistic production in Oceanic art. Papua New Guinea is the most prolific region of artistic expression, especially along the Sepik River, located in the northeast of the Asmat region. Sculpture, painting or carving adorns almost every object of secular and ritual life.

Correlation to Davis program: AP Art History, Content Area 9 supplemental