Fishnet Float (Kopalla)
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Unidentified Solomon Islands Artist
Date:
c. 1901
Medium:
Wood, pigment
Size:
Depth: 8 1/2 ”
Width: 3 9/16″
Height: 4 5/16″
A boy rides a giant turtle. A man grinds fish bait in a mortar [1955.251.129]. Two people hold the fish they have caught [1955.251.125]. These simple moments between humans and the ocean are captured by these sculptures, which were once attached to fishnets and floated atop the water like buoys.
Although Solomon Islands artists created these floats to help fishers keep their nets open, they also beautifully demonstrate the intimate relationship Oceanic societies had with the sea. In the 1890s, Solomon Islanders described these objects using the word debbleum, a term used to identify objects that interacted with the spirit beings who lived in the natural world.
Gift of Alan Wurtzburger BMA 1955.251.128
Additional Audio
A Story She Tells Her Children
Transcript
[Bayley Marquez] I have two children, and I tell them a lot of stories, and one of them is the creation story for
our people, which starts with a rainbow bridge.
[Ocean waves crash as sea birds squawk and screech and dolphins click]
So where I’m from, there’s the ocean, and then there’s the Santa Barbara Channel Islands. And the story goes that our people were born on the islands, but we ran out of space on the islands and we needed to move. And so, a rainbow bridge was built by essentially the mother of our people to help us cross from the islands to the mainland. But it was precarious. It was slippery. It was scary. And those who looked down and fell, fell into the water, but were turned into dolphins when they hit the water. And then those that crossed became the people who lived along that part of the coastline. And so, I always tell my daughters, “Dolphins
are your cousins.” And they always laugh at me and say, “Mom, that’s silly. Dolphins can’t be your cousin.” And I was like, “Well, it’s not necessarily about like the actual truth of it. It’s about the feeling of kinship to the ocean, to ocean creatures.” And to me, that’s very reflected in this.
