Fishnet Float

Fishing in the Solomon Islands requires physical effort and, often, supernatural intervention to assure an abundant catch. Some Solomon Islanders use large communal fishnets, which require many individuals to operate. Communal net fishing is a male activity, which was, and in some places remains, associated with rituals designed to ensure the good will of spirits, who have the power to provide or withhold the fish. This work is a fishnet float, one of a group of floats threaded onto the top of the net, which bobbed on the surface to keep it open. Most fishnet floats were plain, but some portray birds, fish, or supernatural beings. This float possibly portrays a powerful spirit.

Credit: The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979