Saturday, February 11, 2006

More shipping - to exotic (for us) places

We recently shipped a pair of Australian Aboriginal "mimih" figures from our web site at Tribalworks to a collector in Italy. It was a packing challenge due to the long, skinny nature of the pieces - and the destination.

Mimihs are part of Aboriginal mythology, representing spirits that live in the cracks in the rocks of the escarpment. They are often used, as are koshares among Native Americans and "boogeymen" in pop culture, to scare youngsters into the proper behavior.

This collector acquired them for a traveling display of totems that he has put together.

We also have fetish carving collectors in the UK who buy regularly from us. Shipping there is no problem.

Headed in the other direction we have shipped Native American jewelry from our Native Jewelry site to Australia and have shipped repatriated Australian Aboriginal paintings and aritfacts to "downunder." Come to think of it, we have shipped several items of Native American jewelry and Zuni fetish carvings to Japan and Hong Kong.

It is exciting to be dealing worldwide, and to know that material culture from tribal societies is going out around the world to advance the spirit of artistic appreciation and cultural understanding.

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