Tami Islands

Its people were known throughout the Solomon and South Sea islands for their distinctive wooden bowls, their religious figure carvings, and their ceremonial masks.

[2] The cove attracts snorkelers and divers who explore the reefs, including day-trippers from nearby Lae, on the main island of Papua New Guinea.

[3] The reefs contain Spanish Dancer jellyfish, Blue See Stars and varieties of colorful Pelagic fish, both predators and prey.

[6] The islanders still make their living through fishing and the production of these bowls, intricately woven sleeping mats, and delicate carvings, and tourism.

The evidence of the regional trade is visible in the physiognomy of the inhabitants, who resemble in their facial structure the islanders of New Britain.

[7] Bowls would be exchanged for dogs' teeth (used for carving and wood working, as well as for jewelry), sweet potatoes, reeds, pigs, bows, arrows, feathers and the betel nut.

Tamis depict a variety of animal figures, equally as stylized as the human ones, on wooden bowls, hooks, spatulas, canoe prows, paddles, and other useful tools.

These sides were painted in interesting designs of red and white, and the whole canoe bound together with plant fiber of some sort and the joints filled with tree gum.

[17] As a consequence of the bombings, there were large craters in the centre of the villages, and in the betel nut grove, and many of the palm trees were ripped apart.

Topographical map of the Huon Peninsula and Tami Islands, showing the distance between Finschhafen and the Islands, and some of its features.
Tami Islands, off the Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea
Tami Island mask, from Papua New Guinea, late 19th to early 20th century. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
Figure on a stick, Tami Islands ( Ethnological Museum of Berlin , acquired in 1907)