Nokwi

Nokwi, also nogwi or noukwi, is the great female spirit of the third and most sacred ceremony of the Kwoma yam cycle, a rite confined to the most senior men, those who were both proven homicides and the fathers of many children. Her image is carved from the hardest local hardwood as a stylised but readily recognisable mature woman, roughly a metre to a metre and a half tall, and stands as the tradition's principal embodiment of womanhood and clan fertility. In the ceremony the nokwi spirit is made present in a pair of near life-size female figures bearing the names Hameiyau and Sanggriayau.

Domains

• female fertility
• initiation and secrecy

Powers

• personifies mature womanhood and clan fertility

Relations

• companion: HameiyauHameiyau is one of the two named women in whom the nokwi spirit is embodied.Douglas Newton, Crocodile and Cassowary: Religious Art of the Upper Sepik River, New Guinea (Museum of Primitive Art, 1971) (primary)
• companion: SanggriayauSanggriayau is the second of the two named women in whom the nokwi spirit is embodied.Douglas Newton, Crocodile and Cassowary: Religious Art of the Upper Sepik River, New Guinea (Museum of Primitive Art, 1971) (primary)

Sources

• Nokwi is the great female spirit of the third and most sacred Kwoma yam ceremony, imaged as a mature woman and confined to senior initiated men who were homicides and fathers of many children.: Ross Bowden, 'Interpreting New Guinea Sculpture: The Case of Kwoma Nokwi Figures' (2011) (secondary); Douglas Newton, Crocodile and Cassowary: Religious Art of the Upper Sepik River, New Guinea (Museum of Primitive Art, 1971) (primary)
• In the ceremony the nokwi spirit is embodied in a pair of near life-size female figures named Hameiyau and Sanggriayau.: Douglas Newton, Crocodile and Cassowary: Religious Art of the Upper Sepik River, New Guinea (Museum of Primitive Art, 1971) (primary)